All it takes is one to make the jeep go crazy- The idea is to get the one that is on the front on the rear so the front end will calm down and prove it’s the tires.
What am I missing here? (a death wobble thread)
- Thread starter schmidtke_c
- Start date
All it takes is one to make the jeep go crazy- The idea is to get the one that is on the front on the rear so the front end will calm down and prove it’s the tires.
OP
While I was in the garage last night, I did the pry bar test, to check ball joints, pretty much exclusively ran Spicer since I've owned the jeep. The passenger side does have a slight bit of up and down movement, the drivers side did a bit too but a lot less noticeable and more needed leverage to get movement, but not side to side or other noticeable movement - seems tight in that sense, probably gonna have to look into that assuming that's probably the trigger since the axle shafts and hubs are new as of this past month but if i've spent another set of ball joints in less than 10k and one trip offroad my jaw will hit the floor.
Yeah i mean i get it, it makes sense I just don't know if ill be wasting more time rather than just having them balanced again and hopefully ruling it out completely. i mean they should be able to tell me if a tire is out of round or not true when they balance them right? I've spent too much time playing the guessing game, its gotten me nothing short of discouraged and mostly defeated not to mention frustrated.
I don't disagree, but switching is super easy and quick. I'd go front to back, and just see if there's any difference at all. If it's tires....there should be some, they can't be all balanced wrong exactly the same. They might be way worse.
It's just eliminating variables, and making it easier to tell the shop "I did this, and it shows the tires aren't balanced".
Just what I would do, because I've got floor jacks and Impact Guns that make it super quick and easy to test.
OP
Yeah true - Maybe tonight after work ill go out there and get ambitious. it takes a whole 15 minutes and its free. worth a shot. will report back when i have results.
Yeah I was thinking as I read that you’re tired and you really want to get to the end of it
I know how it is man, you want to enjoy your jeep and you want to push it off a cliff at the same time-
My best advice is to just be persistent—Back away from it a little bit if you need to but at the same time don’t give up
If it makes you feel any better OP, I recently got full blown DW at any speeds. I can't work on my Jeeps anymore because of health issues. I have 35" tires and steel wheels. Mechanic lost a couple of weights off one front wheel. Problem solved. I wish my issues were so easy to fix.
I'm putting my money on the unit bearings. Hold the tire at the 12 and 6 and try to rock it in/out. Go to 15:45 in the video to see.
I had some so bad one time that I could not get a consistent toe setting-
If you have 35 inch mud tires and they haven’t been kept rotated and get pretty rough they can really shorten the life of unit bearings.
OP
I'm really sorry to hear that, I would give everything to have my health any day this jeep included. Hopefully things smooth out for you.
I put brand new ones on in February before I installed the 35's I did it when I installed the revolution gear axle shafts as a fail safe against the larger tires. Went with Timkens.
The ball joints were done in October of 2022 and have probably 10k on them with 1 wheeling trip on 33's. The rock jock suspension has about 10k on it and 1 trip. When I did the suspension I changed the ball joints. The steering was done when the lift was done and that's a currie currectlync. The upper ball joint bushings are closer to 2 or 3 years old them have a few more trips and miles but I don't see any signs of cracking or wear.
This is how anal I've been about all this I've been documenting, recording and following all my receipts because it's been an absolute shit show.
Fwiw I don't believe the previous owner put a modified pitman arm or anything like that. Angles up front look normal. It's also got a new trackbar bracket because the old owner wallowed out the old one. Went with artec industries, does thickness matter when it comes to bolting the trackbar down? Is there a possibility that it's not pinching the trackbar properly even though its torqued to spec?
OP
The required tire balance quality is not affected by the wheelbase.
I know it, I was generalizing the whole situation, I'm really familiar with the XJ side of the jeep world taking on this TJ has taught me some serious patience, but clearly not enough
seemed a lot more forgiving to the variables. Got an appointment this coming Friday for the tires though. Fingers crossed.
Thickness isn't an issue as long as the width is appropriate for the track bar bushing. I highly doubt the bolt isn't clamping if torqued to spec. Take a close look at the steering gear sector shaft. I show that in my video as well.
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OP
Well here's something to chew on I suppose. I kind of figured this would be the case but the passenger side ball joint has some play... Passengers side ball joint.
That's probably the main culprit unfortunately. Right? Paired with some half ass balanced tires. Also while looking over all five wheels, not only is there sticky garbage from the previous set up that was never wheeled off or cleaned up but the 5th tire never got Balanced at all... either that or 1 in 5 tires are perfect in every way.
I know steering stabilizers are not the answer or a cure but if I have the means to replace the bracket should I do that to keep some of the stress off the consumables?
That's probably the main culprit unfortunately. Right? Paired with some half ass balanced tires. Also while looking over all five wheels, not only is there sticky garbage from the previous set up that was never wheeled off or cleaned up but the 5th tire never got Balanced at all... either that or 1 in 5 tires are perfect in every way.
I know steering stabilizers are not the answer or a cure but if I have the means to replace the bracket should I do that to keep some of the stress off the consumables?