Curing the famous death wobble.....

HarveyH wrote:

Interesting, thanks. Having read about the death wobble I just assumed thats what it is, ignoring the obvious about wheels....as you say, logical first step.

Unfortunately, so many stories have been told, incorrectly, in my opinion, attributed to "death wobble", that it's the first thought that comes to the mind of a new or inexperienced owner of a vehicle with a solid front axle, it's not unique to Jimnys, pretty much anything with a solid or live front axle can suffer from it.

The perhaps distinguishing character of a death wobble is that once it starts, you have to bring the vehicle to an almost complete standstill to stop the wobble, it's quite unlike a speed wobble or "shimmy" where as you build speed it starts to shake gradually more & more, slow slightly and the shake reduces, speed up it shakes more..

Oh and I almost forgot, check the mounting faces of the wheels and hubs they need to be nice and flat and clean. I found it with one set of tyres that would balance on a machine and then vibrate like mad on the car and then wouldn't balance the same on the machine. Once I got the surface good they were spot on on the car and repeatable on the machine.

HarveyH wrote:

Thanks for your input. Having driven it a second time, it does seem to be above 50mph when it starts, most noticeable 54 to 60 I think. If taking hands off the steering wheel, it is oscillating. Will get wheels taken off and balanced first and hope thats the issue. It has only done 48K miles, so maybe less chance of it being the wobble problem than if higher mileage(maybe)....
 

You want the wheels balanced to the stud holes, not the centre hole, this means the technician has to root around in the box of bits to find the adaptor and nuts not just slap cones on the machine and obviously takes longer so they try not to do it...

Might make no difference, as the Japanese seem to do a better job of making wheels than Rubery Owen used to (watching the old films it is pretty amazing that they ran true...) but as you seem to have a balance problem, best to get it done perfectly.

 

If the king pin bearings are suspect, it is vital that the correct pre-load is applied. I believe Martin has a kit of shims and the pre-load required if you ask him.

Roger

Sorry if I have missed an obvious, but who is Martin?

Think will take to local tyre place, armed with the good advice recived on her, have the wheels balanced and faces cleaned and see if it makes the difference. If not, I will be back on to see the best way to progress. I guess the issue can be that there are many local garages that are good at their job and reasonably priced, but may not know the specifics of a Jimny. Is there a go to garage in UK that people know they can go to to have these sort of issues fixed?

Martin is our illustrious leader and owner of this esteemed venture.