Jeep is darting all over the road

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I have 2004 Unlimited with approx 150k miles on it. I've owned it now for 2 years and all of the sudden it started darting left and right and has become really nerve racking and unfun to drive. I took it in for an alignment and the shop told me i needed lower ball joints, so I replaced both upper and lower. I had it aligned and it continues to dart around. So i finally asked around and found a shop several of my friends trust. This shop said the front end is tight and alignment is fine and the darting is coming from the rear end. They just couldnt pin point if it was the upper, lower or the rear track bar causing the issue so I ordered all 3 and plan on replacing them myself.

They look like easy straight forward replacement. So my question is is there anything I need to know about replacing these parts?
 
My 04 does the same thing....I'm fairly certain the bushings are stock..Is there a kit someone recommends?
 
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Very interesting,,never thought about going this route.....thanks for the suggestion
The front upper axle side control arm bushings are the only ones that have to be pressed in and purchased separately. I think those are around $15 each. 👍
ca front bushing.jpg

jeep ca bushing.jpg
 
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@AlphaDawg2004LJ the control arms are pretty straightforward to replace. Do one at a time, and the other 3 will hold everything in place. Don't torque them down until the Jeep is sitting on the ground. They should be torqued at ride height.

The track bar can be nasty, especially the axle end with that big Torx bolt. Raise the Jeep, lower the left end of the axle, raise the right end of the axle, to get as much space behind that Torx bolt as possible. Just getting a Torx socket and breaker bar in there is tough, unless you have shorty Torx sockets.

And getting the new track bar in can be fun too, since things will shift a little and you'll get the bolt in one end, but then the other end will fight you. People report various ways of getting things lined up. What worked for me was just jacking one end or the other of the axle up and down until the bar moved enough to line up the holes.
 
I have 2004 Unlimited with approx 150k miles on it. I've owned it now for 2 years and all of the sudden it started darting left and right and has become really nerve racking and unfun to drive. I took it in for an alignment and the shop told me i needed lower ball joints, so I replaced both upper and lower. I had it aligned and it continues to dart around. So i finally asked around and found a shop several of my friends trust. This shop said the front end is tight and alignment is fine and the darting is coming from the rear end. They just couldnt pin point if it was the upper, lower or the rear track bar causing the issue so I ordered all 3 and plan on replacing them myself.

They look like easy straight forward replacement. So my question is is there anything I need to know about replacing these parts?
You should have asked here first. At almost no point in time is a lower ball joint capable of causing the issue you described. Any shop that tells you the lowers are bad and causing that problem is completely full of poo. The lowers carry the weight so that means they also get pushed together tighter when the vehicle is sitting on the tires. The darting problem or probability of one will and can only come from the uppers since they carry zero weight and only control the rotational movement of the upper part of the steering knuckle.

I also strongly suspect that even after you replace all the rear components you are talking about that the dartiness will still persist because even if the rear trackbar was running on fully blown out bushing and just riding on the bolts, it would deliver a boat type wallowing feeling, not severe darting all over the road. Hopefully I am wrong and those parts fix it but I'm very skeptical.
 
Let's get some info and history. Did you get an alignment printout? Are there any aftermarket parts in the steering or suspension or is this thing completely factory?
 
Let's get some info and history. Did you get an alignment printout? Are there any aftermarket parts in the steering or suspension or is this thing completely factory?
Which part of the alignment printout shows the slop in the steering gear/lower shaft/intermediate shaft?
How did they figure out the front suspension is actually tight and doesn't have a crap trackbar?
And yes, it would be nice to know what is currently under the rig.
 
Which part of the alignment printout shows the slop in the steering gear/lower shaft/intermediate shaft?
How did they figure out the front suspension is actually tight and doesn't have a crap trackbar?
And yes, it would be nice to know what is currently under the rig.

It won't show that but it might show toe completely out of whack and a sketchy shop telling the customer it's fine so they can sell him stuff.
 
It won't show that but it might show toe completely out of whack and a sketchy shop telling the customer it's fine so they can sell him stuff.
So they sell him stuff with fubar toe angle, install stuff and then correct the toe angle so it seems like the stuff fixed the problem? That's more than a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
 
So they sell him stuff with fubar toe angle, install stuff and then correct the toe angle so it seems like the stuff fixed the problem? That's more than a bit of a stretch, isn't it?

I don't take my vehicles to shops often, but when I do, something is misdiagnosed or done incorrectly at least half the time....so in my experience it's usually more of a stretch to assume they were honest and competent.
 
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I have 2004 Unlimited with approx 150k miles on it. I've owned it now for 2 years and all of the sudden it started darting left and right and has become really nerve racking and unfun to drive. I took it in for an alignment and the shop told me i needed lower ball joints, so I replaced both upper and lower. I had it aligned and it continues to dart around. So i finally asked around and found a shop several of my friends trust. This shop said the front end is tight and alignment is fine and the darting is coming from the rear end. They just couldnt pin point if it was the upper, lower or the rear track bar causing the issue so I ordered all 3 and plan on replacing them myself.

They look like easy straight forward replacement. So my question is is there anything I need to know about replacing these parts?
Here's a different spin, I had a RV that would dart L/R. Turned out to be rear end had momentary lock-ups. Very short time less than 1/2 second not long enough to cato rear end. It turned out to be chunk of gearing floating around for about 3 months. It finally grabbed and locked throwing RV into the woods.
 
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