Tie rod end causing wobble of death?

3378 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by rgreen65, May 14, 2020

bigbaldus

Discussion Starter · May 14, 2020

Hi all,

Currently my Jeep is stock as for suspension, I have a 2017 Willys JKU.
I have been noticing a lot of shaking in the steering, like the dreaded death wobble, so I decided to check for anything visibly wrong under the Jeep and it looks like this tie rod end might be bent out of shape, would this be causing the dreaded wobble?

Thanks for the help and let me know what the best replacement solution would be. I do plan on getting 35s and a lift here soon so take that into consideration also

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tanjeep

· #2 · May 14, 2020

that looks normal to me. it is common for the tie rod to be rotated down slightly. you should be able to just grab it and rotate it the other way. The best way to find a problem with the steering is to have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth in small movements while you observe all joints for movement. sometimes the movement is so small you cant see it, but you should be able to feel it by touching each joint. Start at the steering box and work your way down from there.

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fiend

· #3 · May 14, 2020

Is the shaking like a fairly gentle shimmy or is it so violent that it feels like the front end will fall apart unless you stop the Jeep. If it’s not the latter, you don’t have death wobble. A shimmy usually is an out of balance tire.

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Jerry2117

· #4 · May 14, 2020

fiend said:
Is the shaking like a fairly gentle shimmy or is it so violent that it feels like the front end will fall apart unless you stop the Jeep. If it’s not the latter, you don’t have death wobble. A shimmy usually is an out of balance tire.

Agreed. Vibration is constantly being described as death wobble which would make them afraid to even drive their Jeep which isn't the case. All of my experiences over the years with every vehicle I have ever owned vibrations have always been a tire issue. Worn out suspension causes bad tire wear and poor handling but not vibration.

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Mr. Orange 645

· #5 · May 14, 2020

When you experience Death Wobble, you'll know it! You will have to stop the Jeep to stop the DW, and wait for your butt to unsuck your seat cushion before you can continue on. LOL.

If it shakes and you think, "Oh that's weird...a wobble." That's not DW.

If it shakes, and you think, "WTF is going on? My front end is ripping loose and I'm going to crash!! I just pooped a little!" Then that's DW.

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rgreen65

· #6 · May 14, 2020

Unfortunately, there has been so much hype about the DW and Jeeps that the average Joe believes any vibration is going to kill him and it only happens in Jeeps. To be honest, I didn't hear about it and didn't fully understand it until I read Planman's thread. Unfortunately, after the forum conversion the typeface is so small it is hard to read and I am concerned that some of our newbies won't make the effort.

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BlueBabySound

· #7 · May 14, 2020

rgreen65 said:
Unfortunately, there has been so much hype about the DW and Jeeps that the average Joe believes any vibration is going to kill him and it only happens in Jeeps. To be honest, I didn't hear about it and didn't fully understand it until I read Planman's thread. Unfortunately, after the forum conversion the typeface is so small it is hard to read and I am concerned that some of our newbies won't make the effort.

Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't noticed. Let me know if there's any others you find along the way that were affected by the conversion

I attempted to make the thread a little more readable.
Diagnosing Death Wobble and Fixing Non-DW Shimmies and...

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rgreen65

· #8 · May 14, 2020

Good Job. Much more readable.

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