Chick-N-Picker

1989 XJ 4.0 Auto 4x4 121,000 miles Stock on 30's.

I have come to learn to generally ask here about buying any part because odds are somebody has bought and knows the quality or if it's even a part that quality matters all that much.

So which steering stabilizer do y'all suggest? Amazon has a rough country for $35, or a regular ol' black one for $26, or does it even matter and they all are basically the same? Of course, y'alls input is always appreciated and has been for years.

Sirsyc0

JKS. Pretty decent stabilizer at a fair price. It does what it’s supposed to do.

jbudz511

I would say that if you're between Amazon and rough country... Amazon lol. I hear people say good things about Monroe stabilizers and i think they are stock equivalents, though don't quote me on that. Can't be much more, if any, than the prices you threw up already. I personally have an ome cause I need to match my shocks 😂 but I think most would argue a stabilizer is a stabilizer.

robsjeep

The are two main types.... regular and faster. Faster stabilizers are painted red, yellow, or orange. Regular stabilizers are painted bland colors. If they are the faster type, AND they got a stripe, or a cool looking logo then they are super premium ultra faster stabilizers, a sub type of the faster type. The super premium ultra faster stabilizers will totally transform your stock xj into a wheeling monster truck, honest! If the stabilizer includes a slick looking window sticker in the box, you know you are buying top quality, so expect to pay extra for it. It is worth it as the window sticker adds an unbelievable trail cred to your rig.

Of course a black OEM stabilizer can be rattled canned in a fast color, even given a stripe, and you can print slick trail cred winning window decorations for your jeep from the computer. Doing so will achieve equally impressive performance increases for less money.

Dave51

Steering stabilizer discussions usually turn into DW arguments.

The clever thing to say about that is "In DW, steering stabilizers are only a band-aid for underlying suspension problems".

I do not fully subscribe to that. Jeeps are prone to DW just because they are. If your alignment and parts wear are WNL, IMO all you need to have is something to prevent the initiation of that "harmonic resonance". In XJs, that's the steering stabilizer. OTOH, I will concede that if your alignment and parts wear are WNL and you still have DW, you can eventually throw enough money at all aspects of the suspension to fix it w/o simply changing the steering stabilizer.

That said, I've also been in vehicles that broke ball joints and tie rod ends, so I absolutely am not advocating driving around with faulty suspension parts.

I had DW once (and only once). It is appropriately named. It happened shortly after I replaced the spring perches and shock and stabilizer mounts. It felt like the front axle fell out.

Anyway, I feel the stabilizer is a critical component of XJs, I've got the Monroe (hey, I think it's a good value), it's 2 1/2 years old and I'm happy with it.

Ricthewrench

total agreement w/ faster stabilizer! Color is fast, stripes & stickers are another level

jbudz511

Jokes on all you guys then! My heep has yellow shocks, stabilizer, and is littered in stickers! Fastest xj out there 😎
In all seriousness though as people have previously said. Just buy one and install.
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Chick-N-Picker

Thank you for the input. I honestly just need this death wobble gone or at least reduced to a level to buy some time. And by buy time, I mean just be able to drive it while I work on changing parts over the next month or so. And maybe the steering stabilizer will grant me that, and since mine is shot I need it changed anyway.

Then I will check toe in, and go from there, and on down the line of drag link, tie rods, control arms, joints, etc, etc.

Chick-N-Picker

Decided to go with this one. Weird how our eyes are drawn to the colored ones with stripes haha. But it did have great reviews compared to the cheaper plain black one.

BlueRidgeMark

Dave's wrong on this one. DW has a reason. A stabilizer won't cure it.

Chick-N-Picker

This has to be the single most contradictory topic around. There are people in the comments of that stabilizer that swear changing it fixed it.

One dude said he basically changed his whole suspension and still had it until he changed his stabilizer. I've read that same story a lot of times. But then I've also read about people driving with no stabilizer and have no death wobble.

Mine's shot...bad, so we'll see what happens when I change it. I don't have a feeling it will fix it but maybe it can lessen it to help me out until I do fix it.

BlueRidgeMark

Temporarily.

Once you understand what DW is, you won't think a stabilizer is a permanent fix. It certainly can mask it for a time.

robsjeep

For my lifted rig the Death Wobble (DW) was cured by getting the drag link angle right. On mine the pitman arm had the wrong drop length which threw out the drag link angle. Huge improvement was made!

good luck

Dave51

That might actually be oil, which got some (one anyway) people banned from the site.

If DW can exclusively be blamed on worn parts, or misaligned parts on lifted vehicles, it'd be hard to explain why Mopar sent out the Service Bulletin for correction of DW on essentially new vehicles:

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...69208-9999.pdf

So no, if all my front suspension components' wear is WNLs, and I haven't lifted to the point changing front end geometry (so let's remove all those vehicles with ball joints falling out, track bars at right angles to drag links, and wallowed out tie rod, stabilizer, and/or Pittman connections), I have no intention of laying all the blame, and arbitrarily shooting the Parts Cannon, at every component in the front end.

The root cause of DW lies in design:

Straight axles are prone to harmonic resonance because of the positive feedback loop that can occur because both front wheels are tied together.

For those needing assistance depending on their degree of colorblindness:

Straight axles are prone to harmonic resonance because of the positive feedback loop that can occur because both front wheels are tied together.
Straight axles are prone to harmonic resonance because of the positive feedback loop that can occur because both front wheels are tied together.
Straight axles are prone to harmonic resonance because of the positive feedback loop that can occur because both front wheels are tied together.

So anybody who REALLY wants to stop using Band-Aids needs to get out the plasma cutter, bring out the MIG and put in a

Chick-N-Picker

Put a new steering stabilizer on last week and it hasn't death wobble since.

Is my issue solved? No. My steering wheel is still off to the right and the Jeep pulls right. I know the DW would still occur with out the steering stabilizer.

However, this has bought me time and now I can just check toe-in, swap around tires, and change suspension parts one at a time without having to be in a panic to change everything at once.

So is the death wobble at least covered up enough to make driving less anxious and safer? Yes. Is this story over? No.