What is wrong now ? HHEELLPP !!

OK - here's the deal. I have 1999 Cherockee Sport, 58,000 miles-3 1/2" Rubicon Express kit with 1 1/4" lift rear shackles, 1 3/4" front spacers and a SYE and driveshaft also Rubicon Express. My problem is that I SOMETIMES get a shimmy in the steering wheel-but only SOMETIMES-and when I get it , it is only around 50mph or so. Goes away if I slow down of speed up. Maybe the next time I go to 50mph , I will not get the shimmy. The lower control arms came with the kit but I kept the stock uppers. Tires are only 31's and are balanced with a powder similar to Equal. The alignment has been done too. I am thinking the UCA's or the balance powder are my problem-Can the balance powder work one time and not the next time ? Should I add some BB's inside the tires to help "break" up any clumping of the powder ?
Need to get this figured out soon-going to Moab Sept 13 th.
Dave (hi steve)

If it gets moisture in it I believe it will start clumping. Equal will, but I don't know on yours.

I've seen it cause problems when too much soapy water was used to mount the tire.

Later,
Lincoln

power in tire?

what is this, what does it do ? Please explain this is the first i'm hearing of this

Re: power in tire?

JMLichner said:

what is this, what does it do ? Please explain this is the first i'm hearing of this

Click to expand...

Large tires can be difficult to balance accurately. Truckers have a product called Equal (not to be confused with the stuff you put in coffee) that's a powder to blow into the tires. It's like putting BBs or ball bearings into the tires, but much finer. The theory is that the stuff rolls around the circumference as the tire rolls on the road, and resists tire hop due to the inertia of the powder.

I am a full time tire guy and have been for 5 years. Sounds like a balancing issue.

There are 2 common modes of tire balancing that a shop can do: static and dynamic (or 2 plane).

Static balancing places one wieght (or group of weights) in a single location on the wheel. This means that weight is only on one side of the wheel or only in the middle somewhere. This only corrects straight up and down wheel hopping.

Dyanmic balancing places 2 weights on the wheel in different locations, typically on both edges of the wheel. For example, they will hammer weights on both sides of the wheel. These 2 wieghts counterbalance eachother to remove any side to side shimmy, as well as up and down hop.

Make sure your shop balanced your tires with the dynamic method. Just look to see if there are weights on both sides of the wheel.

If you don't want the weights on the visible part of the rim, then quit yer crying and live with it. Otherwise, you will be rewarded with a better balance.

BTW- No balance can correct a not-so-round tire. They can certainly improve it but never get it perfect. Shops with the high-dollar Hunter RoadForce balancers can correct it pretty darn well, but you just can't balance an egg...

I just went through the 50 MPH shimmy deal. It was caused by my tires wearing differntly from the outer edge to the inner edge. The only way I knew for sure was when I replaced the tires about an hour ago. HTH

Have you machine balanced the tires? It seems answers point to that. Had mine done and it is gone now. Moab Yes! (hi dave)