Loose steering

[bobthetj03]

Let's see your alignment spec sheet they should have given you. the only thing they can really adjust is your toe setting. Why did they adjust your track bar? You installed it, centered your axle, done. They should not have needed to touch it. Your drag link, on the other hand is used to center your steering wheel after they adjusted your toe setting.

 

[Nicholas]

Let's see your alignment spec sheet they should have given you. the only thing they can really adjust is your toe setting. Why did they adjust your track bar? You installed it, centered your axle, done. They should not have needed to touch it. Your drag link, on the other hand is used to center your steering wheel after they adjusted your toe setting.

I tried looking for it and remembered that I didn't receive one. And I think that's also what they did on the sheet receipt it's called a "battery check and advise one time balance" so I'm assuming that's what was included. They say it's all included when they did this so Idk man

 

[Nicholas]

Btw thanks to everyone for the help^ so glad I joined the forum and I wish I had more jeep buddies in person down here in Tampa


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[bobthetj03]

Well, probably too late to retrieve one from them now. It would have been helpful to know what your toe and caster was before, and after the alignment. Oh well.

 

[JP98]

@Nicholas did you have time to put a tape measure on the tires and see what your alignment was?

 

[Nicholas]

No but I'm almost sure it's not the alignment at this point, I'll do it anyways but I really feel like it's just my steering pump, etc


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[Nicholas]

FOIND THE PROBLEM! Man after all that alignment shop can't be trusted! So what it was is that the track bar castle nut wasn't even screwed on all the way, it had so much play that u could almost push it up with your hand. As you can see I tightened it all the way and the extra grease was slipping out, Crazy.

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[JMT]

How does it drive? If you still have a shimmy somewhere on the speed column, you still have a problem. For your sake, I hope that solved it!

 

[Nicholas]

It drives back to where it was before, able to go over that bump again without death happening but so far the shimmy seems gone


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[Nicholas]

And the s


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[JP98]

It drives back to where it was before, able to go over that bump again without death happening but so far the shimmy seems gone


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Great job tracking down the issue. It's always good practice to go back to the last things changed if you didn't have a problem and then all of a sudden you do. It's much better than just throwing money at it and hope that that fixes it.

As for the alignment shop. Some shops are good and some are as you found out not so good. Some shops don't have a clue about TJs. You may be best served by finding a good off road shop in your area for those things that you are not ready to tackle yourself.

But again, great job on staying with it and finding the issue.

 

[Nicholas]

Yea thanks. Theres only two near me but there an extra 30 minute drive from where I live but man I think itl be worth it.


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[Chris]

Glad you solved the issue. Sometimes things like this can be difficult to troubleshoot without actually getting under the vehicle and just looking (and listing) for something loose. Most often death wobble seems to come from improperly imbalanced tires. However, in the cases where it's not the tires, it seems like it's almost always the track bar not being tight enough.

 

[JMT]

My experience (which is limited), is that unbalanced tires will usually only send a TJ into DW if something else is wrong in the steering or suspension. Trackbar is often the culprit, tie rod ends or drag links can also be loose or worn out, then look to the ball joints and steering box. But if everything is good in the front end, you should not get DW, even if your tires are slightly out of balance. I know that some of you will disagree, but think about this, even if your tires are perfectly balanced you can get DW. Why? Because of road imperfections transferring energy to the tire in an unbalanced proportion causing steering or suspension components that are loose or worn out to go into a harmonic distortion causing DW.

 

[Nicholas]

Thanks man and no I know everyone has their own experiences and thoughts on this but it's a very good point, it's like Jenga each block that's fitted in wrong leads to a chain reaction. In fact one thing I still need to do is fill my tires up on that note!


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[05 Blue Unlimited]

All I can say is you have been blessed by God. I had a drag link seperate from the pitman and it was a ride to remember for sure with NO steering. Thankfully I was only going about 30 and it went off on the right sholder but still crappy shop workmanship.

 

[Nicholas]

All I can say is you have been blessed by God. I had a drag link seperate from the pitman and it was a ride to remember for sure with NO steering. Thankfully I was only going about 30 and it went off on the right sholder but still crappy shop workmanship.

That's ridiculous. I feel like with the front end suspension components in these vehicles the matter of perfection is something shops should really put more effort into achieving, glad your okay


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