Death Wobble. It’s an issue Jeep owners of a certain era are very familiar with: in solid-axle suspension setups, when elements like track bars, ball joints, tie rods, or wheel bearings wear out, the entire steering setup will start to oscillate and quickly shake the front of the truck to the point where it becomes uncontrollable. While I know my wheels are out of balance or bent, I’m beginning to suspect there’s something wrong with the suspension on the truck as well, which gets set off by the uneven wheels.

I’ve been through about 75% of my front suspension so far, having upgraded the springs, replaced 3 of the 4 tie rods, and repacked the wheel bearings on both sides; at this point I don’t know what else I need to focus on. I know I’ve got bushings that need to be replaced on the factory-installed sway bar, which could be the culprit, but I’m not sure that’s the issue. I called the Scout Connection to see if they’ve got the fourth tie rod—it’s a nonstandard length, about 9″ from edge to edge, going from the steering box to the lower arm on the driver’s hub—and bushings for the sway bars. I was grasping at straws at first, and thought I might look in the MT-118 Parts Catalog I’ve got on the shelf for kicks, when I was surprised to remember it’s for all of the C-series trucks, not the Scout II like I thought. So I was able to give them the part numbers, which is handy, and they’re going to call me back.

In the meantime, I’m going to swap the passenger front and rear wheels and see if that makes any difference at speed. The next thing to try will be throwing a set of $100 light truck tires on the two front wheels, in the off chance the trailer tires I put on them are just out of whack.