Jeep is darting all over the road

Paul Land said:
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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So did you just leave it parked in the woods then as your weekend getaway cabin?
 
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OldBuzzard said:
@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.
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Don't forget to replace the Torx bolt with a normal grade 8 bolt. I've gone through my whole jeep and systematically replaced anything Torx, including the roll bar to tub bolts.
 
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Duredel said:
Don't forget to replace the Torx bolt with a normal grade 8 bolt. I've gone through my whole jeep and systematically replaced anything Torx, including the roll bar to tub bolts.
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I'd prefer if he instead used a Metric class 10.9 or better rather than give up some diameter on the bolt by switching to SAE.

That said, I hunt down Torx fasteners to use since I'm smarter than a fastener.

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mrblaine said:
I don't use Torx in that application but I was addressing the point that you made of systematically replacing ALL of them with hex head cap screws. That's silly.
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I should have clarified- I'm only replacing the larger Torx bolts like the track bar and cage bolts, not the smaller stuff such as the windshield bracket or odd interior screws.
 
The wind has been blowing between 25 and 50 miles per hour all week. I wouldn't be able to tell if I had a mechanical issue. Is it windy out?
 
I had/have a darting issue. Turns out my sway bar link bushings were bad. Replaced all 4 links, and it feels much better. Still has a slight darting, but it definitely feels much more stable than before. Might be worth a check. I replaced all 4 with the same Zone ones that were on it from the PO, and it was under $100 for all 4 with hardware.

Next on my list will be rear CA’s. Mine are 16-17 years old, and don’t look great from what I can tell. I already replaced the fronts.
 
It is also a common to think that the darting is coming from the rear because the steering feels tight and straight. I would start with a dry steering test. Have someone crank the steering wheel back and forth while you inspect the front end parts for play. Steering linkage, track bar and suspension parts.
 
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@mrblaine @freedom_in_4low A little more info. The first shop I took it too was close to my house and is a small local chain. They would not align it due to my lowers being "bad". I replaced the Ball joints (upper and lower) my self and took it back for an alignment. Issue still persisted. I asked around to some friends and they recommended another shop. Turns out I know the owner of this shop from back when I used to turn wrenches in high school. He had it for a day, called me up and said the front end was out of alignment but the issues was really in the rear end, but didn't have the time to figure out which part. Since he knew me he simply asked if I wanted to replace everything myself or leave it with him to diagnose and fix. So i took it home then jumped on the board here for advice.

FYI, the 1st shop did not give me a print out. The 2nd shop gave me a print out and since they didn't fix the issue didn't even charge me for the alignment.
 
Could be any of the 16 control arm bushings, 4 track bar bushings, 4 sway bar links, 4 sway bar bushings, etc. I had a "wiggle" in my rear end and it ended up being the axle side track bar bushing.
 
Well, I've replaced everything on the rear of the vehicle (control arm and track bar) and its only slightly better. Not sure where to go to now.
 
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