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strange shimmy, not death wobble 40-50 mph

T

thechief86

NAXJA Forum User
Location
White House, TN
so i just recently started to get this shimmy, nothing has changed about my jeep, aside from me replacing all of my tierod ends(rusty's steering conversion), tracbar TRE, and tightening everything up. it feels like beginning death wobble, i guess, but never quite gets bad enough to make me slow down, and goes away if i get over 50 mph. i drove through the creek behing my house to get any mud off my rims, and it didn't change anything. i went through and grease all the TRE's and ball joints.
i have ~4.5" of lift, 32" cooper stt's and ~4" backspacing on the rims, but none of this stuff is recent. this is how she's sat for the last couple years.
i'm thinkin maybe ball joint are worn out, or maybe i threw a weight off one of my front tires while wheelin.
what do you guys think?:dunno:
i've never gotten any type of shimmy in an xj without it goin full-blown death wobble, but this isn't that. it's very weird.:gee:
 
Unit bearings? I had a similar problem, just replaced them, and it went away. Mine were pretty bad though. Could be ball joints for sure. Wheel unbalanced / lost a weight?

~James
 
yeah, i did all that... it is like death wobble but not all the way to beat your brains out, have to stop to kill the wobble kind of wobble, but yeah, that. i just replaced one unit bearing, and the other isn't too bad. the thing is that i got the wrong year unit bearing for free, and used an angle grinder to trim it down to fit inside my brake rotor. i'm wondering if that's the problem... the wobble is only between 40 and 50 mph.
 
ok, so thinkin about it, that unit bearing is not the wobble. i didn't have the wobble when i put that together. it kinda started after my last trip to wooly's i guess? i don't think it happened that day, though.
 
So, you pulled out the front shaft and no difference?

How bout the tires and wheels? try swapping the rears to the front, or put on another set? get the balance checked? Track bar frame mount is tight? Axle side track bar mount hole wallowed out? Get under the front of your jeep and get someone to push side to side hard on the fenders to see whats going on.

Any play in the tire/wheel with it on jack stands, like ball joint wear or unit bearing play?

Just throwing stuff out there,
 
yeah, thanks man, tried all that except tire rotation and balance. i'll give that a shot i guess. i payed walmart for lifetime rotate and balance, and although nothing has changed on my jeep, a year later they won't touch it. say it's too high to put on there lift and they don't wanna put there guys in danger. lazy a$$holes i will never try to save money on my vehicle with them again. i hope they all get the clap, except the one guy who tried to talk them into helping me. i can rotate the tires, i have a jack and jackstands, but i don't have a balancer machine...
 
My wifes 2000 has the same issue at 50-55. I put on a new trackbar and frame mount, replaced 1 unit bearing plus rotated the tires. The next thing to do is replace the TRE at the pitman arm. It has a little movement and that is the only place I see any, so that's next on the list.

Stuff like this is aggravating but it does give me a reason to buy Jeep parts and work on it and it be OK with the wife. :D
 
My bet is on the tires. Mine does the same thing and I am 100% sure it's my tires. Can't afford new ones yet so I just go faster than 55.
 
thechief86 said:
...nothing has changed about my jeep, aside from me replacing all of my tierod ends(rusty's steering conversion), tracbar TRE, and tightening everything up. it feels like beginning death wobble,
Click to expand...


thats a huge 'nothing except' :shocked:

You probably ought to bite the bullet, find a coupon and go get a 2 wheel alignment. I'd bet that fixes you problem.

I hate paying for work as much as all of you, but once they set it up base-line, you should be able to correct trail-tweakage with a tapemeasure and an eyeball.
 
i measured everything before and after taking it apart and putting it back together, but i'm sure it may have been off by a bit, and i am also sure that with my trail skillz, i have prolly bent those dom tierod and draglink.
 
it is probably a tire balance issue, but since no one else mentioned it it could be the Rusty's steering. I have never run it myself, but have also never heard anything good about it. I got one used a while back and decided not to use it. From what I've read where the drag link connects to the tie rod will gradually wear over time causing steering issues and dead spots from the tie rod rotating when you try to turn instead of the drag link immediatley moving the tie rod to turn the wheels.

Before you start changing steering definately get those tires balanced. You might want to do some research on media balancing to avoid throwing weights.

Good Luck.
 
stumpXJ said:
How bout the tires and wheels? try swapping the rears to the front, or put on another set? get the balance checked?
Click to expand...


Jess said:
Before you start changing steering definately get those tires balanced. You might want to do some research on media balancing to avoid throwing weights.

Good Luck.
Click to expand...

shortxjdoug said:
tires.....
Click to expand...


superdave said:
My bet is on the tires. Mine does the same thing and I am 100% sure it's my tires. Can't afford new ones yet so I just go faster than 55.
Click to expand...



all that to say...

get your tires balanced... I am able to balance mine at work, and i try to rotate every 1000 miles. i have a 00 XJ w 3" lift and 32s... i get a slight wobble 45-50 every other rotation. right now i don't have any problems at any speed, but when i rotate them again in 400 miles, i'll get it back, as i have one tire out of whack. i would balance them again, but don't want stick on tape all over the wheels, so i'll balance them every 5K, or atleast that's the plan... i've had this happend on another set of tires too. (weights fall off after wheeling :) )

- i know the tire shop i got my tires from would balance a tire for $15 each, if they put your jeep on a lift, and took it off. might be cheaper if you could roll in your tires or something...

hope this helps...
 
ok, gonna try to get them bitches balanced tomorrow then. gotta find somebody that can do it on saturday, other than walmart. f*ck walmart. i hope it burns down. any way, i think i may go with sticky weights. not feelin like the airsoft bb's, as i don't have anyway to break the tires down again if it don't work, nor do i have a whole lotta cash. i might hafta wait till monday to get it taken care of.
 
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