If your checking swivel..you dont need to buy any parts really..just take one or two shims away...

 

On my 172K 97 Disco the wobble was also triggered by braking, had a slightly warped rotor and sticking caliper. Measured temp of rotors after driving home with one of those infrared point and click thermometers, the "bad" one was 20 -40 degrees hotter than the others. Also replaced all the tie rod ends, used the greasable ones. And my previous owner had removed the steering damper, so put one of those in as well. So your idea to replace lots of things may have some merit, as Murphy's Law may have been written with front end mechanics in mind.

 

Won't this mess up my preload?

 

That's kinda the point. The thinking is that since the 6:00, 12:00 is the worst play on your wheel that the swivel pin is loose. I don't think it necessarily indicates bad swivel pin bearings. So the first step would be to take a shim or two out to increase the pressure on that bearing, in effect tightening up the swivel pin a bit. See if that corrects your death wobble. I'm pretty sure people who have done it also advocate packing it with grease. At least that's what I've seen people do.

 

Gotcha. They only have shims on the top one, right? And you just mean packing grease into the hole the pin goes through, or do you mean trying to reach into that hole with a finger to pack it back into the bearing?

I also need to get a couple of one-shots to service the swivels anyway, should I wait until I've seen if removing a shim fixes the wobble before doing that?

 

If you want to save money...just get lucas red and tacky grease...works awesome in our swivels

 

You mean in lieu of the one-shot? Seems like it would be too thick. Or is it thinner than other greases? I use Green Grease (synthetic) on bearings and that stuff seems like it would be too thick for swivels at least. How would you ever drain the stuff?

I think a one-shot is not too expensive if it's the right stuff for the job. Is there an advantage (other than cost) to using Red 'N' Tacky? I know they used to fill the swivels with oil which is why I'd suspect anything as thick as actual grease...

 

Just for the hell of it you may want to check your steering damper/steering stabilizer. Back when I had my 94 Cherokee I had the death wobble... Same symptoms you described. All I did was replace the steering damper and the death wobble "died" lol.

 

I may be wrong, but as I understand it even a bad damper would never be the root cause, the vibration has to come from somewhere before it can be damped. I had the damper off a few weeks ago to relocate it. It operated smoothly, and offered plenty of resistance, so I think it's fine. Also, relocating the damper is not what caused the wobble, it was present before as well. I just am not driving it much until I have this under wraps. My next step (tonight or tomorrow) will be removing a shim or two from the upper swivel pin.

 

So I put the front axle on stands and removed the driver's wheel so I could see the swivel pins. It looks like I'll need to remove the ABS sensor, some kind of brake line bracket, and also work around a steel brake line to get the swivel out. Is this correct/normal or is there a different way to get to it?

Also, there are only shims on the top swivel pin, right?

I've got it all soaking in penetrating oil and I hope I can get it apart without too much trouble later. If removing shims fixes this problem, I will be one happy camper, literally (since this is my camping/offroading rig)...