Tire wear issues with all newer parts

I've been having some really strange tire wear issues. I'm running 30x9.5 Maxxis Bighorns and every other knob on the inside of the tire is wearing heavily. Every other knob on the outside is wearing slightly.

My setup:
Originally a 2WD 1993 Cherokee that i converted to 4WD. Running a non-disco D30 ('98) in the front and a D44 locked in the rear.
3" lift using Rancho springs in the front with the Monroe HD shocks of appropriate length. Shorter aftermarket LCA's, stock UCA's. Rancho stabilizer.

I totally re-did all the steering parts a year ago with Autozone parts, including the track bar (which i re-drilled at the axle to help with the lift). New balljoints top and bottom, both sides.

I've had it aligned twice professionally, and i just went and checked toe: about 1/8" toed-in. I don't know what the caster is, but i assume it's set right.

I'm also getting a slight death wobble at about 55mph. I had issues for a while, then they went away after i bought new tires, now i rotated my tires and it came back. Tire wear was present with and without the death wobble. I think it's unrelated (and i'm going to get my tires re-balanced), but i figured i'd mention it.


Any ideas?
The boots are all torn on my new steering parts (AZ crap...) so i ordered the Crown ZJ steering conversion stuff, but i don't expect that to fix the problem.

Edit: I also want to mention that i've done a lot of searching for various issues like this and haven't come up with anything. I've been under the car and had someone cranking the wheel, but nothing is moving abnormally. I jacked up both wheels and checked them for play--nothing.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm at my wits end!

My tires wore the EXACT same way when I first bought my Jeep. It was lifted, etc. so I figured it was a bad alignment. It was actually a bent D30 axle housing. That's why I have another turd in my garage waiting for gears to go in.

Same thing happened to my bud but it was bent C's.

A bent housing would be a definite possibility for mine. I have noticed that the connection for the passenger side swaybar is bent down slightly--at least indicating an impact of some kind. Wouldn't that kind of thing show up on an alignment machine though?

Sorry, what's a "C"? Not familiar with that one. Thanks for the thoughts! I'm getting ready to gear mine, so if i need a new front axle housing it's better now than later.

Another quick question--if i'm going to the junkyard to pick up an axle, will one off a ZJ work? I ask because i know they have better brakes.

Maybe they're not C's... I'm young and fairly new to the technical part of the Jeep world (been wheeling all my life!) But, by Cs I meant the outer parts on the axle that resemble Cs and pivot for the steering.

Ah, okay, that's what i thought you meant. Sounds like i should just pick up a new axle and go from there (i have a local "u pull it" where a whole axle will cost me $100...no sense nickle and diming it).

The C is the part you can see looking from the front of the axle, it's got the ball joints pressed in.

Do You have a copy of any of the alignment specs you can post up? most shops will just set your tow, most dont do anything else on a lifted rig, unless you ask

Mine was chewing tires, It was the outer c's tweaked. I corrected with adjustable ball joints and gusseted them.

I can ask the shop that did the last alignment if they have the specs, but i would bet they didn't bother saving them.

Come to think of it, IIRC the spindle was broken on the passenger side when i purchased the axle, so i used the spindle off my 2wd dummy axle. It all makes sense, suddenly

I thought the D30 was supposed to be pretty solid? Do that many people have issues with bending the C's and the tubes? Or is it just when the car has been jumped/rolled?

Edit: i read up on gusseting the C's, looks like i'll do that to my new axle before i bother sliding it under there.

I jumped mine and landed nose heavy, It was mostly an accident

You can attribute the staggering of the lugs to the aggresive tread design. It can be accelerated by poor alignment/ worn steering components, but it mostly characteristic of the tire. You should see the same wear patternes on the rear tires, just not as pronounced. All you can do is rotate often and maintain correct air pressure.

The death wobble could be from worn steering/suspension components, so definitely give those a good once or twice over.

balance the tires again.

My gf's brother had the bighorns and they wore funky too.

I picked my new front axle up (with 3.08suke for $40 off of KSL. My current one is a low pinion and bent. :laugh2:

I have an 88' parts Jeep that has 3.55s in it but it's a disco axle or I would have just used it. So now I just need to truss the new one, swap gears into it, reinforce the C's and throw some new seals / bearings into it and then it'll be ready to go! :roll:

I've seen so many bent/broken D30s it's not even funny... Oh, and I don't jump my Jeep, I have a dirtbike for when I want to go airborne.

Porch951 said:

Another quick question--if i'm going to the junkyard to pick up an axle, will one off a ZJ work? I ask because i know they have better brakes.

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You may be thinking of a WJ,ZJ front brakes are the same as an XJ.

muddeprived said:

balance the tires again.

My gf's brother had the bighorns and they wore funky too.

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I think i'm a little beyond "funky" wear, though. In just 300 miles i lost ~1/16" tread off my freshly rotated tires on only every other knob on the inside. I found a few other threads with lots of people talking about how much they loved their Bighorns... I know they're a mud tire and i expect some strange noise and wear, but mine is just plain ridiculous!

Porch951 said:

I think i'm a little beyond "funky" wear, though. In just 300 miles i lost ~1/16" tread off my freshly rotated tires on only every other knob on the inside. I found a few other threads with lots of people talking about how much they loved their Bighorns... I know they're a mud tire and i expect some strange noise and wear, but mine is just plain ridiculous!

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Pictures?

What you are describing is commonly called cupping. I would worry about ball joints, tie rod ends, shocks, and track bar bushings. It is caused by a high speed "flutter". If it was recently aligned, I would take it back and make them take another look at it. They should have caught any of the above items.

old_man said:

What you are describing is commonly called cupping. I would worry about ball joints, tie rod ends, shocks, and track bar bushings. It is caused by a high speed "flutter". If it was recently aligned, I would take it back and make them take another look at it. They should have caught any of the above items.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the new search term!

The thing is--i've replaced all those things within the last year with brand new parts!

Basically the long story is:
Jeep was a 2wd, no issues. I converted it to 4wd and it got a terrible death wobble. Terrible as in, i asked a mechanic friend for his opinion on it, so he took it out--and he came back with a pale face.

So i rebuilt the entire steering, replaced the track bar, and put new balljoints. Just as bad as before. Finally i replaced the damper (even though i understand that's a "bandaid") and the problem mostly went away. With new tires it got even better, however, now i'm having this tire wear issue.

I've got a few lines out to pick up a new front axle. I think i'm just at that point, now....

old_man said:

What you are describing is commonly called cupping. I would worry about ball joints, tie rod ends, shocks, and track bar bushings. It is caused by a high speed "flutter". If it was recently aligned, I would take it back and make them take another look at it. They should have caught any of the above items.

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X2 on this. I have come to find out you need to check everything regularly.

muddeprived said:

Pictures?

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X3 on what old_man said. Something else you can do once all the problems are eliminated is rotate every 3k miles and always cross the front tires to the rear. If you are having "heel toe" wear, this type of rotation will help disperse the wear so it will ultimately give less drivability symptoms. Heel toe wear is where on each edge lug that is unevenly worn, the leading edge of it is worn more than the trailing edge (which looking at the top of the tire, will be the rear.) On my 2wd xj with street tires, I have good parts and a known good alignment. I'm now over halfway worn through my tires, and all 4 have the exact same wear pattern. They have some edge wear on both the inside and outside of the tires with no sharp sipes as you run your hand across it. This is probably because I only set the air pressure when I rotate the tires (my bad:dunce