Pulling to the right (Pretty Hard)

I have a 98xj 4.0 with 183K miles and a Skyjacker 3.5" lift and front disconnects. I run 31x10.5 mud tires. The ole' jeep has recently developed a pretty strong pull to the right while driving. It doesn't "Dive" but it will pull you off the road if you let go of the wheel. I jacked up the front end last night and there is no movement up and down in either of the wheels. I did however find a lot of grease "caked" on the lower ball joint area of the right front wheel. Is this my issue? Ball joints? I have had the jeep for the last 70K miles and have never replaced anything on the front end because it has all been tight and worked great. I do keep everything lubricated at oil change intervals and I check for movement then also. Any idea's on where to start my search? Thanks in advance for the help!

A frozen balljoint won't make it pull left or right. Your going to see something more along the lines of the steering wheel not returning to center after a turn or increased effort to turn the wheel.

I would be looking for a dragging brake on the side it pulls to and also check the wheel bearing/unit hub real good for resistance turning or looseness. Its also possible that you have worn front end parts in the suspension such as bushings or a bent shock holding the suspension out of place.

I'd also be checking out the rear end. Specifically look at the u-bolts and make sure the rear axle has not shifted on the springs. Its possible that you sheared off the center bolt in the spring pack. If that happened it will change the thrust angle in the rear making it want to turn to the side that the wheel base is now shorter on.

You may also want to try swapping the tires around either side to side or front to back. I've seen tires cause whats called a radial pull. Basically its one tire is effectively bigger/smaller than the other and rotates at a different speed than the other. If your not getting a shake with it I doubt its the tire going bad but it never hurts to rotate mud tires.

I will check the rear end issues you mentioned tonight. As far as the steering, it is not hard to steer (not that I've noticed anyway), but the steering wheel has not sat center since I've had it. Just thought it has something to do with the lift and it drove fine so didn't give it much thought. On the brake issue, how can I check to see if a caliper is sticking or not releasing? I spun both front wheels last night and didn't notice any unusual sounds and they both seemed to spin as freely as the other. Any tricks?

On another note, I've only had the tires on for about 2-1/2 months. They seem to run great, but I will try rotating and see if there is a difference. Thanks!

a bad ball joint, look for play in the ball joints, get tire off the ground, and shake it and look for play that way

a stuck caliper

low tire pressure

how is your alignment?

these are the cheap easy things to do first

i have this same problem with my 4runner.
my driver side lower ball joint is bad, can see it easily, and also i have a slow leak in the driver side front tire, so i get a double pull to the driver side whent he psi is low

blondejon brought up a good point I missed. The balljoints might be worn out excessively letting the camber setting change. I would think you would see this during the shake down you did of the front end. You would see wear starting on the edge of the tire it coresponds to much like if a hub assembly was bad.

For the brakes it doesn't have to be a front thats dragging. If you use the parking brake its possible that the cable(s) are sticking and making it drag to one side.

Also try checking the tire pressures to make sure they are the same atleast side to side.

Yeah, I forgot to post last time that all my pressures were checked and all were within 5 psi of each other. Added to all and all are perfect now with the issue remaining. The way it's pulling, the right front would have to be nearly flat to cause that hard of a pull. My parking brake does not work and hasn't for some time now. I will pull the rear wheels tomorrow and check the back brakes. I will also try and see if one of the front calipers is siezing. What about the grease "caked" on the lower ball joint area? Should I be concerned about this? It's not like this on the other side. Could this be an axle seal?

I doubt its the inner axle seal thats bad. You would see gear oil coming out of the tube. It could be the hub bearing is bad and cooked the grease out of it or the axle U-joint is bad and throwing grease out. I would think that in either case you would see the grease all over the place not just on the bottom balljoint.

I doubt that bad u-joint would cause a pull but a bad hub will definately cause it.

It's been a while but I wanted to update this thread with what I found. I didn't drive the rig much over the holidays, so I'm just now getting to it. The culprit or culprits I should say were a caliper not releasing all the way and also a bad u-joint on that side. Replacing all this weekend. Thanks for the help all!

Need to update again. Replaced both calipers, rotors, pads, and wheel joints. All is good right? No, actually not. It still pulls to the right somewhat. It is better than it was, the caliper was not releasing all the way. Also, the slides where the brake pads slide are grooved up just a bit so I will have to weld and file smooth pretty soon. Would this cause the pads to not back off all the way and in turn cause the pull? I'm reaching at this point. I was at my dad's tonight and had him turn the wheel and there is no unneccessary movement in any of the steering components. Could this just need an alignment? I'm going to have the tires rotated and balanced this week. I'll post up results.

Also, the grease "caked" on the ball joint area was from the axle. the u-joint was bad and the plastic seal that covers the axle was loose.