Death Wobble

[derJack]

Originally Posted by dig255

... all of a sudden..[/IMG]

We have a 2 year technical inspection that every car needs to pass.
I can tell this does not come all of a sudden. Has this track bar been inspected anytime before, new bushings?

My BMW e36 series Z3 had a new front done after 10 years and 70k miles. All bushings new, the complete front. 5 years later the complete rear off the car and redone with new bushings.
This is pretty much standard here.

[Orv]

Heh, very few US states require safety inspections, and the ones that do tend to focus on less-than-vital things like the horn and the parking brake.

[BrianW]

Originally Posted by Orv

Heh, very few US states require safety inspections, and the ones that do tend to focus on less-than-vital things like the horn and the parking brake.

True, although a lot of the NE states do, for some reason. Pennsylvania has a pretty strict safety inspection. I just had to have ball joints done on my van to pass inspection, for example.

Years ago we were driving to Alaska and were stopped at an RCMP vehicle safety checkpoint in Canada. They were doing pretty in-depth inspections of just about every vehicle (not random). When we got to the head of the line the officer looked at our safety and inspection stickers from PA on our windshield and told us we were god to go :-)

[boerboelguy]

BrianW that's the only way we can make across our pothole strewn roads here in PA��

[Eddie]

I am not a SMB owner, but I am very surprised that you have a track bar with leaf springs. Normally a track bar should not be used with leaf springs unless a modification has been made to allow the leaf springs to slide in their mounts. Otherwise as the track bar goes through its normal arc it will "fight" the leaf springs which just want to go straight up and down. This is especially true on a vehicle which has significant travel to the suspension. I could very well expect the track bar to fail after awhile since the leaf springs are likely stronger. As noted above I am not an SMB owner so maybe there are some details that I am not aware of, but I have experience with cars, race cars, and RVs.

[Junkpile]

Originally Posted by Eddie

I am not a SMB owner, but I am very surprised that you have a track bar with leaf springs. Normally a track bar should not be used with leaf springs unless a modification has been made to allow the leaf springs to slide in their mounts. Otherwise as the track bar goes through its normal arc it will "fight" the leaf springs which just want to go straight up and down. This is especially true on a vehicle which has significant travel to the suspension. I could very well expect the track bar to fail after awhile since the leaf springs are likely stronger. As noted above I am not an SMB owner so maybe there are some details that I am not aware of, but I have experience with cars, race cars, and RVs.

I agree 100%, strangely enough though, the leaf sprung jeep YJ’s came form the factory with track bars front and rear. Normally removed when lifted. If left on, the frames would stress crack around the mount Due to the constant fight between the track bar and leaf springs.

I wouldn’t think that broken track bar would cause the death wobble. Being a leaf sprung front end, I’d guess that something else is at fault and the DW is noticeable and maybe even exaggerated due to the worn out/broken track bar.
Now if this was a coil sprung, linked front end, it’d be a different story completely.

[Jsweezy]

I would contact Chris at Ujoint with any leaf spring suspension questions. According to him leaf spring suspensions cant have death wobble so he should know what your issue is.

[UJOINT]

Originally Posted by Jsweezy

I would contact Chris at Ujoint with any leaf spring suspension questions. According to him leaf spring suspensions cant have death wobble so he should know what your issue is.

This is a SMB 4x4 swap, happy to help but something else is severely worn to cause what I see in this pic. The van should be able to run down the road and drive w/o a trac bar at all so something is loose or out of spec. Loose u-bolts, worn drag link or tie rod ends, broken or worn leaf spring bushings.


I've never said that leaf springs can't get DW, they can but something has to be really worn our or loose to cause it. Its much less common than coil spring suspensions because they have less moving parts.

[dig255]

Update in response to all the posts.
I am original owner. I am no expert can only say my experience. Have had van since 2012 with 100k miles and have never had any problem or complaint about how it drives. It is standard SMB 4X4 build. Originally had Helwig sway bars front and rear, but have been off for a couple of years because they caused damage at the frame mounts, but I don't miss them drives fine.
The problem that prompted this post only happened after a day of off roading apon re entering paved surface did this wobble ever happen before so I must conclude that something broke that day off roading. The only other thing I can say is the only thing I have replaced is the broken track bar and things are back to normal for me. Since repair I have done 750 miles about 80 of it off road on some fairly tough sections. No more broken track bar no more wobble.

[seasmith]

Originally Posted by dig255

Update in response to all the posts.
...
The problem that prompted this post only happened after a day of off roading apon re entering paved surface did this wobble ever happen before so I must conclude that something broke that day off roading. The only other thing I can say is the only thing I have replaced is the broken track bar and things are back to normal for me. Since repair I have done 750 miles about 80 of it off road on some fairly tough sections. No more broken track bar no more wobble.

If that's all it took to fix the wobble, one might suspect Tire/Wheel misalignment and/or balance to have been a root cause.
When were they last rotated, balanced and aligned ?
Evenly worn ?