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Death Wobble solve: PROPER wheel balancing is the key!

  • wilku
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28 Jan 2017 18:48 #177437 by wilku
So, I went through every step from or wiki article about death wobble, and I was close to starting the magical ritual described therein...

However - and I want to make it clear and useful to next generations of Death Wobble Fighters - a PROPER wheel balancing is CRUCIAL.

I'd replaced everything I could, but some of the wobble persisted. Then I went to a tyre workshop which has a more advanced balancing machine - a one that has an additional roller that presses the wheel while balancing to simulate on-road performance.

It turned out that two of my wheels (both left) had a noticeable side-to-side (or - horizontal) vibration, while two other didn't. There's not too much to prevent this kind of misbalance, but at least I chose th two good wheels for the front and... THE DEATH WOBBLE IS GONE. FINALLY.

Yay!

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28 Jan 2017 20:28 #177447 by Keithy
In the late 80's I worked for Vauxhall and we used to balance the wheels on the car.....it always seemed to work pretty well!

Unless the wheel was moved around the vehicle :D

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  • wilku
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29 Jan 2017 10:34 #177464 by wilku
On-vehicle balancing was the last resort I was thinking about -thankfully - not necessary in my case.
But I can't stress enough how important the wheels are in solving a Jimny death wobble.

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29 Jan 2017 11:21 #177469 by facade
You have to stand behind the tyre technician and make them swap the cone for the stud flange on the balancing machine: Jimny wheels are balanced from the stud holes, not the big hole in the middle.

If it suddenly breaks, go back to the last thing that you did before it broke and start looking there :)

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29 Jan 2017 15:58 #177477 by Busta
If wheel balancing fixed your death wobble, then you didn't have death wobble! You just had unbalanced wheels, which any car can suffer from.
Death wobble refers to the sudden violent shaking of the wheel (the kind that makes you want to stop the car and walk) caused by movement in one or more of the steering components.
Even the healthiest Jimmy's will tend to have a very slight wobble through the steering at 45-50mph due to the geometry of the steering.

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29 Jan 2017 18:18 #177491 by facade
I get a terrific wobble at about 45 after it has stood a couple of weeks, it goes after a while when the tyres remember that they are supposed to be round. :whistle:

If it suddenly breaks, go back to the last thing that you did before it broke and start looking there :)

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  • wilku
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29 Jan 2017 20:20 #177495 by wilku
Busta - I had a death wobble AND unbalanced wheels. Changing front suspension bushings, kingpin bearings and wheel bearings has reduced the issue to unbalanced wheels only. And now it's all fixed and the car finally drives properly.

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  • Sid180
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29 Jan 2017 20:31 #177497 by Sid180
Reading a lot about the dreaded death wobble on the forum,I'm afraid I suffer from this problem too,but only intermittently which is annoying,one day is smooth the next it's terrible(40-45mph) wheels balanced correctly no worn bushes or anything, Ive lived with it for over 4 years now,think everyone has individual remedies which work for them,I've heard of brand new jimnys with the wobble and that can't be any worn part! Im gonna try a dampener,as our land rover at work has one as standard,but is this really the best way to reduce that wobble?

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  • wilku
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29 Jan 2017 23:19 #177507 by wilku
I'd definitely check if the wheels are balanced as I described - with a roll that simulates a road usage - not justa regular balancing. That gave me an info on the horizontal vibration of each wheel and I've chosen the better two for front even though they had bigger "standard" weights put on than the other ones.

A damper is just masking, not solving the problem. Look at the article on our wiki - it explains a lot:
www.bigjimny.com/mediawiki/index.php/Death_Wobble

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  • 1066Boy
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30 Jan 2017 07:16 #177511 by 1066Boy
Kates jimny developed this a few weeks back. After all the normal checks found one of the rear
tyres was down to 15 psi. Put all the tyres back to normal pressure, wobble gone. It don't take much
to ups these cars. :)

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  • Venter
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30 Jan 2017 09:40 #177512 by Venter
Wilku, I think what Busta and others are trying to say is that death wobble is a complex problem. What solves it entirely for one person might have zero effect on another's car. For example, I know that my tires need a balance and my tracking needs sorting, but my death wobble was (almost) completely cured just by a kingpin bearing change.

First thing that should always be done though, especially if the car is offroaded much, is the wheels sprayed down with a high-pressure hose. Clumps of mud cause mayhem, which ties into your post above about balancing.

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  • wilku
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30 Jan 2017 17:01 #177525 by wilku
This is pretty much what I also wanted to say - the reasons are plenty, I've gone through everything and at the end of the day it turned out that wheel balancing, which I assumed had been done properly, was not enough.

So having spent some coin and time on getting rid of the death wobble - including the "(almost)" part - I would recommend anyone struggling with the issue to start from the wheels - I underestimated their impact.

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