Can't figure out what is wrong with my jeep!

Sianna

Sianna

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Joined
Mar 10, 2017
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9
Location
Utah, United States
I have an 01 Jeep Wrangler sport(manual). It is on 35's and has a 4 in lift. Every time I
shift it throws the jeep to the right really hard. Also it shakes VERY bad and
you are never able to keep it straight. It is very hard to control the steering
and is getting scary to drive.
Another thing, sometimes when i turn or shift one of my tires ( usually a different one each time) will make a loud noise and then throw my steering again. I have been told that it may be my locking differentials?
Does anyone know what the problems could be and how to fix them?
Thank You!
 
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Some locking differentials can cause handling quirks like that, especially rear-mounted lunchbox lockers which are notoriously ill-behaved on the street. Do you know what lockers are installed, or do you even know for sure that your Jeep indeed does have lockers installed? Jeep never installed lockers into any Jeep except for the Rubicon so they would have to be aftermarket.

And is a dropped Pitman arm installed? DPAs will cause bump steer which means the steering will be forced left/right as the front-end moves up/down over bumps/dips in the road. Dropped Pitman arms should rarely be installed on a TJ and then only in unusual specific configurations like when there is a dropped driver's side track bar mount. Not even with 4" of suspension lift like my TJ has.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
Some locking differentials can cause handling quirks like that, especially rear-mounted lunchbox lockers which are notoriously ill-behaved on the street. Do you know what lockers are installed, or do you even know for sure that your Jeep indeed does have lockers installed? Jeep never installed lockers into any Jeep except for the Rubicon so they would have to be aftermarket.

And is a dropped Pitman arm installed? DPAs will cause bump steer which means the steering will be forced left/right as the front-end moves up/down over bumps/dips in the road. Dropped Pitman arms should rarely be installed on a TJ and then only in unusual specific configurations like when there is a dropped driver's side track bar mount. Not even with 4" of suspension lift like my TJ has.
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We were told that is does have the lockers, although I don't recall him telling us what ones were installed. I do know there has been a lot of aftermarket things installed as well. It used to bump twice really bad so when we took it to the mechanic he said it could be the lower left trailing arm. That night we crawled under and one of the other bars was not even bolted down:(. We fixed the bolts and from then on it rode a lot smoother and stopped the double thud but did not fix any of the throwing etc.
Could it still possibly be the trailing arm?
The pulling to the right becomes even worse when we put it into 4wd.
Lets just say the guy who sold us the jeep chose to not mention a lot of things:mad:
 
Sounds like it could be the locker/s not disengaging when turning. Going straight shouldn't be an issue, so if it is snapping sideways on and off the gas I would check two things; even tire pressure, pull the diff covers to manually check that the lockers are functioning properly. Lockers/manual trans/SWB vehicles can be squirrely and take some getting used to. But, if it is pitching it as hard as you claim, you need to check some things. I would also make sure the alignment is good as well as all the suspension set up correctly. Good luck, let us know what you find out. Oh, and welcome to the forum!

Sianna said:
Lets just say the guy who sold us the jeep chose to not mention a lot of things:mad:
Click to expand...

One of the risks of buying a modified vehicle, unfortunately.
 
You have several things to check but at least you can determine if you have the evil dropped PItman arm installed. The first photo shows where the Pitman arm (which steers the Jeep) is, the second shows an example of a dropped vs. non-dropped Pitman arm. Yours needs to look like the Pitman arm on the right...

FrontEnd.jpg
Pitman arms.jpg
 
Sianna said:
Will that solve all the throwing etc?
Click to expand...
I don't know what the exact symptom is you're calling "throwing" but replacing that dropped Pitman arm with the correct OE Pitman arm will cure the bump steer. Bump steer is, again, when the steering is forced left/right as you drive over bumps/dips in the road.

If the front springs were removed and you layed underneath the axle to push the axle straight up & down, bump steer would cause the steering wheel to rotate right/left in synch with the front axle moving up & down which it's not supposed to do.
 
Sianna said:
Awesome! Thank you guys so much!
I have had people tell me that my tires could also be the problem?
Click to expand...
Tires can cause problems, have them checked out. I updated that Pitman arm link in my post above, the current link in that post is a better choice.

And if you are having the replacement Pitman arm installed by a shop, ignore any yahoos that try to tell you you need a dropped Pitman arm. That would only be true on much older Jeeps and many non-Jeep trucks.
 
Sianna said:
I am also thinking about getting my alignment checked.
Click to expand...
It's easier and faster if you do it yourself using the instructions at https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/how-to-align-your-jeep-wrangler-tj.85/

You can do your own alignment with nothing more than a tape measure, wrench, and a big pair of pliers. And trust me, your alignment which is just setting the toe-in and centering the steering wheel will be every bit as accurate as can be done on the latest laser-guided whizbang alignment rack.

Do the alignment after the new Pitman arm is installed since that will affect the steering wheel centering. It's actually easy, I can align mine in about the same time it would take me to drive to my nearest alignment shop. I can set my toe-in in under 10 minutes.

Your camber angle is not adjustable and unless your control arms have adjustable lengths, neither is your caster angle. So that leaves just the easily set toe-in angle and centering the steering wheel.

If your control arm lengths are adjustable, it would be however a good idea to have an alignment shop check things over though. The previous owner may not have known what he was doing and could have screwed up some of the arm lengths. Replace the Pitman arm before doing anything else though.
 
One more question :) So I have the MT/R tires with the trail ready rims and I've been thinking about getting new ones that would be better for the freeway. Would different tires help with driving on the roads and freeway?
 
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