Death Wobble

Well, I have had my WJ for nearly 8 years and while there have been some quirky things that needed ironing out, I have never experienced what happened the other day.
This week my wife and I did a 5 night stay to Port Macquarie from Sydney for some R&R. On one of the outings I hit a rough bit of dirt and the car shook like a mad man.
It was very frightening as I slowly managed to pull off the road just.
I has a look around and saw nothing obvious so continued albiet at a slow pace.
On return to our holiday place, I checked everything that I could (a bit hard on a foreign driveway) and tightened every thing up that I could, including wheels and tyre pressure etc etc, I even ordered a new damper by express, in case it was that that was causing it.
Only thing is that it happened again on the next day , doing just 80k, once again we pulled off the road and continued ever so slowly after our hearts slowed down.

I eventually found a alignment place in port macquarie who put it up on the hoist and who seemed fairly familiar with Jeeps and even showed me the invoice of just a few weeks ago of another WJ that had the same problem AND had travelled almost the exact KLm (138500). Weird that!
He suggested after bit of checking around that I need 4 x tie rods and that my ball joints were stuffed. He showed me the movement in all except one, which was OK
As it was our last day I thought it better we get back to Sydney to do the repairs.
Luckily the Hwy road is smooth all the way and there was only the occasional feeling of unrest. Mind you we travelled all the way at no more than 90k, which began at 3am (Yes. I said 3am! so I could travel slower with less traffic.

We finally got home at 8am and now this begs the question - Where can I get these ball joints and tie rods with out paying the extreme Jeep prices and where can I get it done near home in Sydney?
If you guys have any experience with this very scary situation or have any ideas, please let me know.
I would be curious in knowing if other Jeeps like the JK or TJ have every had this problem

ps AND to add salt to the wound, while we were there I had to get the rear brakes done, cause they were screeching liek crazy were stuffed too,

Thanks
Steve

[Hunno]

Steve,
Have the same thing on the ZJ. Started around 141k mark, have found the tracking bar bolt loose tightened it problem went away for a day or so. Talking to Wooders & Colin they have both suggested the tracking bar mounting bracket hole my have elongated, causing movement that you can't replicate by hand as it needs more force than you can do by hand.

[Turismo07]

Go to rockauto.com for the parts, or try Wooders (and he would prob fit it as well). Ebay also has cheap tie rods, but the quality may be questionable. Worn tie rods and ball joints would cause DW in any vehicle with live axle in the front. My mates Pootrol has DW on a 2" OME lift with worn tie rods.

[pmac]

Do you have a lift? If so, how much and what brand? The only thing that fixed my DW were drop boxes (and I spent over $1,000 doing everything else making sure it was all noce & new and tight).

Saying that, my DW (as is most peoples) is a direct result of the lift, whilst it sounds like yours could be some loose bushes somewhere due to you never having the problem before. Did you end up fitting the new steering dampener? Has it happened since that.

I know it's not much comfort, but it's not that bad. For me at least, it only happened at 80km/h - never any faster. Also, you still have steering and braking, so total control (even though it doesn't seem like it and you think the front is about to fall off). The only worry I had once I realised the car is still contollable was having to slow down on a highway to 20km/h quickly when traffic behind you is doing 80-100.

[turbomart]

Yeah as Pmac said , what lift etc? if none then just replace worn bits.

[SeaComms]

Any and every coil sprung solid front axle vehicle can develop death wobbles and you will find plenty of threads on here and everywhere else for that matter of JK and TJ and Nissans etc with the problem. Lets be specific though, there are front end shimmies and wobbles, then there are death wobbles.

The death wobbles are caused by a harmonic vibration or wobbling between the body and the front axle, with the only component keeping it in check being the track bar (or panhard rod). Many other things can set it off, such as potholes, bad ball joints, bad tie rod ends etc, but all they will do is set off the harmonic wobble. Being a harmonic wobble, once it starts the only way to stop it is to stop the vehicle. If slowing by 20 k's or so stops the problem then its not death wobbles and the following is not overly relevant!

The only way the wobble can occur is if there is sideways movement between the body and axle. Since the trackbar is what controls this, you need to check the bolts are torqued to spec, and that they havent come loose and allowed the mounting holes to oval out. Also the bushes may be worn and allowing to much movement within them. It may not be obvious to the naked eye when looking under the vehicle, but a good way to check is to have someone slowly turn the steering 1/2 a turn or so each way whilst looking at all suspension bits in the front for movement (with the vehicle sitting full wieght on the wheels to load up the steering). If no obvious movement is found, repeat and move the steering wheel rapidly left to right 1/2 turn each way. Be careful though when doing this as not to injure the person underneath!! Another test is a nice big screwdriver to lever against the track bar ends to see if you can move the bar or squash the bushes.

Thats a good starting point - theres a couple of well written full ckecklists around, I think I have one linked somewhere if you cant find any.

[turbomart]

Correct seacomms, but also add DW can & often is ,caused by worn front lower control arm bushes &/or steep angle of front lower control arms.What happens is bump causes CA bushes to deflect which then rebound (no shocks there to control this movement longitudinally along CA) & starts harmonics off.