Front End? Jitters

I recently put in a bb kit on top of my 3" lift on my 98 XJ. I have a tcase drop, and front discos, other than that its all stock components. Ive had it on for the weekend, but yesterday I noticed that when I hit a bump it seemed like my front tires were kinda wobbleing or jittering/shaking side to side. Could this be lift related? They also seem to be wearing my front tires out faster on the outside edge, but from before the bb addition. Alignment? Any thoughts?
Thanks

Could be a number of things. Probably pinion angle, has changed. If you do a search on Death Wobble, you'll find all kinds of things that can cause it, including tire balance. Unfortunately, you'll also find there is no 1 set answer, as may differernt things can cause the problem you are experiencing.

Goodluck

Rob

This isnt what I would consider DW, I mean i spend like an hour driving 60+ no problems, its only when i hit a bump hard that it does it, no other times...

Mine did the same thing, had a broke u-joint on the front axle. Replaced and problem fixed.

98XJSport said:

This isnt what I would consider DW, I mean i spend like an hour driving 60+ no problems, its only when i hit a bump hard that it does it, no other times...

Click to expand...

That's how mine does, & everytime it's the front tires out of balance. Get them balanced & no more trouble for mine. But like I said yours might be different.

Rob

What Ive found now is that the outside 1/3 of both front tires are worn far more than anywhere else, making me think its an alignment issue...but my question now is will i be able to make enough adjustment or will I need adjustable LCAs? UCAs? Both?

More info needed. Did you get an alignment after the BB install? If not, do that pronto. Gojeep's site tells you how to do it yourself. Did you install longer shocks with the original lift, or longer ones after the BB? Any steering upgrades done at any point? Everything tightened properly and torqued to the proper specs? What size tires you running?

Not after the BB, plus its frost heave central here so its rough on an alignment anyways. I didnt notice the jitters for the first like 3 days though...Got longer shocks with the lift itself, not since. I have JKS swaybar discos, thats all the upgrading ive done up front. Im running a badly worn set of 31x10.5r15s right now, going to the same size in the next few days.

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I was looking for some info on a very similar problem, and ran across it while searching:

My vehicle: '92 XJ, 4.0 / AW4 / 231 with 212,000+ miles Tires are Toyo Open Country AT P225/75R15, and I have been running them at about 30psi. Had them rotated and balanced about 4 months ago.

Had OME 2" kit (including shocks) + TCase Drop + Front Swaybar Discos installed a couple of months ago by a reputable local shop, and retorqued/aligned about 1000 highway miles later. I have yet to "disco" the discos as I have not been off-road since having this work done.

I have no complaints with the handling most of the time, but I do hear a bit of a clunk when I come to a moderate to hard stop. Additionally, I occasionally (not all the time) feel what I think is the front U-Joints binding, but only when I am just starting to come back from having the steeing at full lock (e.g. turning around in the driveway).

What I am finding is that on one particular bump on my daily commute my front end goes seemingly into a rather disconcerting wobble (entire front end shakes in a side-to-side motion) for about 5-7 seconds and then quiets down. I have only see this happen with this one bump, and it does seem to have gotten a little worse over the last couple of months (the XJ isn't the DD these days, but I take it to work once in a while to get it out and run it). Other road bumps do not seem to cause this, so it appears that there is something special about this bump (or type of bump) that sets the wobble off. Unlike 98XJSport, I have noticed no unusual tire wear.

I found Hoytinak's comment about the u-joint interesting - my front axle joints are probably the only ones on my rig that have never been replaced. I had the left front knuckle assembly replaced somewhere around 130,000-140,000 miles (had been installed crooked and stripped by some unknown entity), but I do not know if the ujoint was replaced as part of that job. The right front joint may be original to the vehicle.

Hoytinak, did you notice any other symptoms from your broken joint, or was this occasional wobble the only one?

Thanks,

Rob