SuperCharger to HEMI Transition?

[FLIPmeOVER]

SOUND BYTE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i love the avatar baumann. you earned it.

[gbaumann]

Sorry guys, no 0-60 or sound byte today. I GOT DEATH WOBBLE! Scariest moment ever. Steering wheel went crazy and came out of my hands. Felt like the front end was off the ground and trying to tear itself apart! I'm going to re-read Ross' thread on diagnosis and fix. Guys at OK4WD will get me in ASAP and think I'm headed for a JKS or Metalcloak trackbar. They also recommend an aftermarket tie rod and some other part (I don't remember). They don't like the use of heavy duty steering stabilizers. Let me know your thoughts.

[JeepLab]

Give us the complete picture, in my case, the steering was fine until I'd hit a bump with the wheels turned slightly. Then the front end would go crazy until I brought the truck to a complete stop. Then, it would right itself and I could drive again.

Did it come on with impact? even very slight impact? Can you make it happen at will? When testing, Id hit traintracks with the wheels turned and feel for vibration.

My first thought was to change everything too, but the aftermarket steering stuff may not be as dead on as stock. And the stock components are pretty beefy. Once we got to the problem in my case it was an easy fix, but we used stock components to be sure to preserve the geometry.

I have a big ass RK solid steel track bar.

[Timmy]

Sorry guys, no 0-60 or sound byte today. I GOT DEATH WOBBLE! Scariest moment ever. Steering wheel went crazy and came out of my hands. Felt like the front end was off the ground and trying to tear itself apart! I'm going to re-read Ross' thread on diagnosis and fix. Guys at OK4WD will get me in ASAP and think I'm headed for a JKS or Metalcloak trackbar. They also recommend an aftermarket tie rod and some other part (I don't remember). They don't like the use of heavy duty steering stabilizers. Let me know your thoughts.

To help find the source of your death wobble, remove your steering stabilizer all together while doing some low speed testing. The purpose of the stabilizer is to improve how the steering feels, not to stop death wobble. You should be able to hit a 2' pot hole at 60 mph and not get death wobble WITHOUT a steering stabilizer.

In my case, the entire source of my wobble came from a worn out passenger side tie rod end on my drag link bar and a worn out drivers side tie rod end on the tie rod bar. Since the tie rod end on the drag link passenger side is forged, I had to purchase a new drag link (went with a Synergy one.) For the tie rod bar, I ordered an OEM aftermarket replacement tie rod end for about $20. Put both on and the problem was solved.

I found both of these issues by using a set of pliers and putting them above and below the tie rod end and trying to compress the fittings. Each side had about 1/16" of play in them. If they were tight there, I would have jacked up the axle on both sides and then had someone move the steering wheel back and forth to see if any of the tie rod ends were lagging in movement at all. There is a good video on youtube showing this.

Point being... You can solve this yourself, and usually for cheaper than you realize. It takes VERY LITTLE wear on your tie rod ends to get death wobble. In all cases though, please don't go down the road of a beefed up steering stabilizer. That just masks the real problem. You should be able to drive the Jeep all day long without the stabilizer. In fact, I was just about to pull my stabilizer off in order to isolate a problem of the Jeep pulling a bit to the left now that I have my new upper/lower control arms on. Because I have a gas charged stabilizer, it doesn't auto-center at neutral but instead always wants to extend, thus, it might be the reason my Jeep always pulls to one side slightly, or it could be that I didn't get a measurement on a control arm right.

[Pznivy]

It takes VERY LITTLE wear on your tie rod ends to get death wobble.

^^^THIS!!!!!!

It tiny fractions of wear throw off the whole front end and you think your jeep has a huge problem, when really, its an hour of sniffing out the problem, and then a second hour of replacing the worn out end.

mechanics know it feels like the end of the world behind the wheel, and they will make you pay for it. So make sure they know your not a dummy. They will sell you a full suspension change in some cases if they think they can get away with it. At the end of the day its a $50 part from the dealer and your fixed.

[KaiserBill]

It is highly unlikely that you managed to accumulate 1/16th of inch of tie end wear in the few days you've had the vehicle back from the shop. Did they have to change or more any of the steering components to put the new engine in? That is where I would look for a problem first. But, I think that you're right to take it right back to the shop. I wouldn't even try to self-diagnosis this problem.

[gbaumann]

I second all of the above!

First, the wobble comes on after impact when turning the wheels to the left. A little bump can do it. But a decent bump will definitely do it. Need to be going somewhere between 45-65 mph. Otherwise the harmonics don't keep the wave going. I can make it happen.

I've been feeling the "lingering" feedback in the wheel for some time now and suspected that DW was coming. But as they say - if you think you might have DW then you don't. If you have it, you know it. Well, I know it and now I know what it feels like coming on. The hemi simply put her over the top with the added weight. It was only a matter of time.

I go to OK4WD at 7:30 a.m. for a diagnosis of what's loose/worn and to get a new track bar and alignment. Regardless of what parts are worn and causing the DW I'm told that the stock track bar isn't designed for the weight of the V8. Add the weight of the AEV bumper and the winch and there you have it. It's a known issue.

I don't have a big steering stabilizer. It's tiny. Again, advice I got from the shop. They tell me that the front end needs to react to the pitch of the road and turning. Kind of like you're supposed to feel the weight of the truck fall to the downhill side of the road and take the slack up in the steering wheel in the opposite direction. Big stabilizers (and two way? stabilizers especially) can prevent that intentional change with the pavement and can even slow the wheels when returning to center causing excess wear and masking real problems.

I'm not going to change everything. I'm going to be under the truck with a tech before they open in the morning and go through the components one-at-a-time. The track bar is a given and I'm OK with that.

[gbaumann]

I have a big ass RK solid steel track bar.

Did you have the RK track bar before you got DW? If so, I wonder if the tie rod ends then became the weaker "link" in the chain of front end components.

[JeepLab]

I did have the rk trackbar before DW. The problem in my case was the tie end from the pitman arm. Nothing to do with the trackbar.

I used an oem end to make sure the geometry would stay perfect. Like one above mentioned. I think I spent 70 bucks.


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[gbaumann]

Back at ya! From the newly downloaded iPhone app!