"Death Wobble" - KZJ78 - Steering damper?

[J78]

Recently imported KZJ78....took it for a test-drive on Day1 and noticed a steering-wheel shaking vibration around 30mph. Tire date codes dated them to 14 years old.

Installed new (stock size 265/70/15) tires and had them speed balanced. Wheels are not stock and have a little more outward offset than stock. No lifts or suspension mods. Everything (with the exception of the wheels) is stock.

Although the "death wobble" seems to have disappeared @ 30mph, I still get a slight wobble at random intervals, with no obvious cause (e.g. smooth, flat road).

I lifted the front end off the ground and everything seems tight...no wheel bearing play, no tie rod play, etc.

Is this issue indicative of a bad steering damper? The installed unit looks stock/original as far as I can tell.

 

[Tanner H]

Before you replace the damper, take a took at the bushing on the track bar up front. Mine had the same wobble and turns out the bushing was toast.

Reference Tab94 in this photo. Have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth as you lay in the ground to see if this bar has play. If so, they are really easy to remove and replace. No press needed.

Edit: forgot to mention you need to order two bushings for that one side

 

[pakaLJ73]

bushings bushing bushings...

they are the first parts to change in order to deal with the death wobble in my opinion.

i changed the bushings in my panhard rod, stabilizer and side arms and the death wobble is gone.

 

[Ash Awbery]

I had really bad death wobble in my LJ78 checked al the bushes and they all seemed ok (replaced the arm bushes as the weren’t the best) even did a front axle knuckle rebuild, bought a new damper and destroyed it in a couple of weeks. Turned out someone (not me) had not put the larger washer on the back of the pan hard rod bush (TAB-094) sorted that and we are all good.

If you want an extra damper, round headlight LJ70 have damper on the front steering arm,

I now have two damper because I have land dragons which are impossible to balance

 

[mt72]

Check the front sway bar link (bolted to the frame) something to consider ....

 

[CRSWA]

i was getting death wobble only at highway speeds under heavier than normal braking - definitely the worst time to experience it. I'd already replaced all of the consumable suspension and brake components and rebuilt the birfs, so I was at a loss as to what could cause it. I took it to a professional and they found that my front rotors with only about 20k miles on them were already warped. I had discounted the idea of warped rotors since I couldn't feel any pulsing in the pedal, but replacing them fixed the problem. As a wise lady once said, "it's always something."