rancho steering stabilizer

[Tagg]

I am thinking of getting a bracket (RS-5510) and two stabilizers (RS-5407) to help solve a death wobble problem on my 08 JK.
Has anyone used these? Know of better? Are rancho products reasonable quality.  Any input will be appreciated.

[Bone206]

From what i've read, steering stabilizers just mask, but do not fix, the etiology of the death wobble. Here's a good write up:

http://www.jk-forum.com/showthread.php?132779-Diagnosing-Death-Wobble-and-Fixing-Non-DW-Shimmies-and-Wobbles&highlight=diagnosing+death+wobble

Hopefully it helps.

[Tagg]

Yes I agree. But I have read that a beefed up stabilizing bar is a good thing.
I read a similar article and I have changed both upper and lower ball joints as well as the heim joint end link.
The alignment was done and the tires were balanced 1800km ago.  I'm going to get it aligned and balanced
again this week.  The jeep only has 6600 km.
So I'm kinda going through that checklist in the write up trying to see what may be causing it.
I wonder if the new ball joints need retightening?
 

[Jeepless]

Check and re-check your trac bar bolts(and relocation bracket if it was used) When I had a death wobble that's what it was a loose trac bar. I used loc-tight on the hardware and I never had the wobble again. As far s Rancho goes I had one of their lifts ,including the stabilizer, on my Tj and I never had any problems. Rancho shocks and Monroe shocks =Same company..Tenneco.

[Tagg]

thanks I'll check that out tonight.  I guess tightening them as much as I can is a good thing.

[w squared]

The vast majority of JK "Death Wobble" issues are track bar related. The link provided by Bone206 is excellent. If you experience DW at highway speed, it's the kinda thing that will make you want to change your undies. If you don't need a new pair, then it's a non-DW shimmy 

Until your DW or shimmy issues are completely solved, I'd reccommend against doing anything to beef up your steering stabilizer. It will just mask small problems un til they turn in to big ones. Once you have the issue solved, then fill yer boots - a beefier steering stabilizer makes sense with 35's.

I'd also encourage you to see if any of the holes that the track bar bolts got through are at all "ovalized" by previous DW episodes. Make sure that you have the Jeep's full weight on the wheels when you're tightening the track bar bolts as well. Have you gone through your entire front end to check torque on everything?

I'm shocked that you've had to replace your ball joints after less than 10,000 K. I'm still on my factory ball joints (on their way out, new ones waiting for install) at 90,000K...and 40K of that has been on 35's. I don't beat my on my rig, but it's not exactly a pavement princess either.

[Anton]

Just had a death wobble on deerfoot doing 110, went to e mortal customs and found the problems

1. I had wrong alignment done after my lift.
2. when i bought my lift i was mot informed that i would need new control arms or pinion adjustment cam bolts to get my caster (probably wrong spelling) in a right angle. so they are getting me the pinion bolts and i would be good to go.

I am so new to this but the people in e mortal are so great.

I thought I s**t my self when it happened.

Anton

[w squared]

#1. E-Mortal seems to have given you some good advice, but a caster issue did not cause your death wobble. Your caster being too low (which is what happened when you lifted your JK without adressing caster) will cause your Jeep to have "flighty" steering...but will not cause death wobble.

#2. Do yourself a favour and do not put cam bolts onto your rig. If you are off-roading at all, it is very unlikely that they will stay correctly adjusted. Please do yourself a favour and get a GOOD QUALITY set of adjustable control arm (Currie or Clayton). This will allow you to get your caster into the right range. The other options would be a set of AEV's control arm relocation brackets...but I don't actually know anyone that has run them so I can't provide any real feedback.

#3. Buy a torque wrench, go here
http://www.wanderingtrail.com/Mechanical/JK/Torques/2007_Jeep_TorquesP1.htm and print it out, and learn to check your suspension over yourself. Pop the track bar off and check to see if there is evidence of damage at either end...and then put it back on and re-torque it with the rig sitting on it's wheels.

Also, look for Tagg's recent post here about death wobble. Bone206 put up a great JK Death Wobble link there.

[Evil-Jeep]

Wife had DW on her 07 unlimited - turned out to be a seized steering stabilizer, Jay did a great job finding the issue and was cheaper than having the diagnostic done at a dealership. There is still an outside chance that there was something that caused the steering stabilizer to seize and it could happen again but everything is tight and in good shape so we will wait and see.

[homeguy]

When I had my 07... 1 tire belt broken and caster out... took me 2 weeks to find it.

[Anton]

well i can not say no to the bolts, they ordered them and i payed. i can not afford control arms at this moment but in the future i will buy them and have it done ones and for all. the trac bar was checked at it is new (came with the lift front and rear) so today i am getting it done and i will see if the DW still there. i will post the wheels alignment sheet  pic, it was not good lol.

thank you for the info. i  can not wait to learn about my rig that i can now what to do with it, people love new guys (like me) with no idea what is going on under the hood.

[w squared]

well i can not say no to the bolts, they ordered them and i payed. i can not afford control arms at this moment but in the future i will buy them and have it done ones and for all. the trac bar was checked at it is new (came with the lift front and rear) so today i am getting it done and i will see if the DW still there. i will post the wheels alignment sheet  pic, it was not good lol.

thank you for the info. i  can not wait to learn about my rig that i can now what to do with it, people love new guys (like me) with no idea what is going on under the hood.

If I were you I would pay for the bolts (cuz you ordered them) and NOT install them. Cam bolts require modifying the bolt holes on you frame, meaning that they are a one-way trip unless you get someone to repair the damage done when they install the cam bolts. Cam bolts are an inexpensive way to adjust caster on a street-only vehicle...but I would drive my Jeep with the stock control arms in place for a month or two before I would let someone install cam bolts on my rig.

[Bone206]

If I were you I would pay for the bolts (cuz you ordered them) and NOT install them. Cam bolts require modifying the bolt holes on you frame, meaning that they are a one-way trip unless you get someone to repair the damage done when they install the cam bolts. Cam bolts are an inexpensive way to adjust caster on a street-only vehicle...but I would drive my Jeep with the stock control arms in place for a month or two before I would let someone install cam bolts on my rig.

I would definitely heed this good advice. do NOT put on cam bolts (EVER), as they will only give you trouble. I ran a 2.5 TeraFlex coil lift for while before getting front LCAs. . .the Front Lower Control Arms will make your rig MUCH more directionally stable at highway speeds (I'm running the Teraflex Front Lower FlexArms). Without them my castor dropped to about 2.5 degrees (and expect yours to be less with a 3.5 lift), and with them, I'm running a castor of about 6 degrees. A set of LCAs will run you about 350 including shipping from Northridge, and instead of paying someone to do your next alignment, do your own and put the money towards a set of LCAs (http://project-jk.com/jeep-jk-write-ups/basic-do-it-yourself-jeep-jk-wrangler-front-end-alignment)

Makes a huge difference 

[Tagg]

#2. Do yourself a favour and do not put cam bolts onto your rig. If you are off-roading at all, it is very unlikely that they will stay correctly adjusted. Please do yourself a favour and get a GOOD QUALITY set of adjustable control arm (Currie or Clayton). This will allow you to get your caster into the right range. The other options would be a set of AEV's control arm relocation brackets...but I don't actually know anyone that has run them so I can't provide any real feedback.

So if I need to replace the tract bar and steering stabilizer, buying them from Currie or Clayton would be an improvement in quality and durability?

[Anton]

So i have them installed, I did not see the posts before i did them.

I believed the people at E Costums, they said that it will stay on place if i off road, the cam bolt gave me a better angle but not the perfect one.

When you guys say i would only have problems with the cam bolts, what kind of problems, that i can keep my eye on them.

And when they did the modifications for the bolts i asked them if  there would be problem placing new control arms and he said no. So Thank you for all the information i wish i saw that before but after they installed the bolts and changed the angle, i tried very hard to set off the Death wobble and could not. So they did something right and i am happy so far. I can only learn from my mistakes and i would know better for the future.

Anton