I had something happen yesterday that really got my attention. Driving at 65 mph , was in a slight turn over some rough pavement. The front end started to shake so bad , nearly took the wheel out of my hand. I Slowed down and the vibration stopped, got up to speed again and all was good for maybe 15 miles. Did it again when making a slight turn to take an exit Not sure of the speed , but I would guess 50 plus.
Crawled under thinking the stabilizer shock was the cause. All looked OK no leaks, nothing loose. I did find the drivers side sway(stabilizer) bar link was broken at the bar. Not sure if that is the problem or broke because of the vibration. Any thoughts

 

Death Wobble homie. Look it up.

 

Yep, Death wobble. Even completely stock XJ's can suffer from it, poor geometric design of the front suspension. Best you can do is get used to it.

 

I guess I must be lucky, as mine is completely smooth up to 100 mph and in moderate and hard cornering. Is the steering stabilizer's purpose to help counteract this?

 

It dampens it, aka a steering dampener - yes. But it is only a mask. It seems to help the steering wheel not be affected as much by any play or vibration in the steering system pretty well.

Wobble can come from a combination of many different things, and I'm tired of typing about it, as Phishy said - look it up, it's not only common, it affects quite literally every single XJ, whether the symptoms are currently present or not - they will be.

As for you IJM - yes, you're lucky, but not every XJ is going to have wobble at any given time. Yours may have just had a good/lucky life to not start wearing on the parts to start wobble over time. That doesn't mean your xj is immune to it in the future.

Tires/wheels also have a lot to do with wobble along with all the steering components that I'm too lazy to list again.

 

Makes sense to me, thanks.

 

It's a really weird phenomenon. My rig's lifted 3 inches, and I only occasionally get wobble around 60ish MPH, or if I hit a bump at any high speed. 100mph, while sketchy as heck and time consuming, is doable for me too.

 

It's not JUST and XJ thing, it has to with a coil sprung solid axle front end. Ford's get it, Dodge Ram's get it.

If things are worn out or alignment is out of spec ... It is possible to happen. It is a harmonic oscillation of the front suspension and steering.