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Death wobble and the wheel dance.

P

pataterchip

NAXJA Forum User
Location
California
After the 6.5"-7" lift and sye,disco's, rustys OTK steering and a host of other mods, My tires are wearing really bad, just looking at them you can plainly see the drivers wheel espacially is toed out in the front \ / like this if front is up, and the wheel camber is
like this / \ both are leaning in at the top I adjusted the tie rod to bring the front of the tires in and got the worst death wobble I ever felt. I have to toe them out to quit the wobble beast. I know to take it in for allignment but how are the wheel cambers adjusted I see the ball joint but don't see how they would be adjusted.
 
Mopar makes an offset upper balljoint specifically for jeeps with ur problem this is what I was told at my alignment shop when my camber was slightly off and also when I took in my old MJ
 
Ball joints, and camber, are not generally adjustable. I say generally, because you can buy adjustable ball joints for an XJ D30---it's just a last resort to correct for minor "c" misalignment, after determining your present u-joints aren't worn out, and your axle housing isn't bent.
You should try adjusting your toe-in correctly, using a tape measure to insure the distance between the front of the tires is no more than 1/8 closer than the rear of the tires.
Lifting an XJ will definitely change toe-in. Incorrect toe-in will destroy your tires very quickly.
After the toe-in is correct, then look at camber again. If it still appears to be off, replace your ball joints, then take her in for an alignment, primarily to get a machine derived base line.
Unless you've been jumping your jeep, your front axle is probably not bent.
 
Really bad toe-in will make the camber look off also.....fix the toe in first.
 
No, but if you havent already, you need to jack up the front (both sides on jack stands) to pull push shake and other wise too for sloppy/loose things...

When you do the toe in...take a shot at it...crank it up pull it forward and backwards a couple of time and then check it....repeat as needed..
 
Sarcasm... but I understand where you're coming from I suppse. I get the same feeling when someone says 'a little bit of death wobble'. That shiz tried to kill me ansd there is no such thing as 'a lil bit of DW' it either is or it ain't...

Carry on...
 
For real grins 'n giggles try setting the toe "out"....(disclaimer) Do not attempt running an XJ with the toe set "out"...EVER! It will put the trail too far back and there are no words to describe how bad it will handle.
 
Since I have the rustys long arms, will the alignment shop need to adjust the arm length for ither the uppers or the lowers, and can they straighten my steering wheel it is half a turn off right now?
 
If you have adjustable uppers and lowers, yes they can adjust them. Whether or not they need to you won't know for sure until they align it. Best bet is to take it to a shop that specializes in 4x4's and has an alignment machine. If you take it to a normal shop, chances are, they're just going to put it in factory specs, which for lifted Jeeps isn't always a good thing! Yes, they can and SHOULD straighten your steering wheel!
 
On an XJ, it's "toe-in"--never at "0" and never at "-out".
To say to adjust an XJ's toe-in is correct.
If discussing alignment in general (not vehicle specific), then the term "toe" is correct.

lowrange2 said:
------ That shiz tried to kill me ansd there is no such thing as 'a lil bit of DW' it either is or it ain't...

Huh?? That's much more irritating than saying "toe-in", even if "toe" would be correct.


Carry on...
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
If you take your XJ to a normal alignment shop, chances are they won't adjust your caster even if you do have adjustable UCA's. But if they do, it's important that each arm (on a four link--which is, of course, is the stock configuration) be adjusted to the same length; probably not as critical with a radius arm set up. I've had shops try to correct castor cross-error by adjusting driver's side to a different length than the passenger side. You can't correct differences in castor that way, with a solid axle--but their machines will show changes never the less (??).
As part of the toe-in adjustment (on an XJ:wave1: ), centering the wheel is part of the adjustment. Do not accept the job if the wheel is not centered, and they can't adequately explain why not.
 
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