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front end side to side play

xjjk

xjjk

NAXJA Forum User
Location
ca
happy new year! my local pick a part has 1/2 off new year's day. Now to go blow my paycheck...party1:

Here's the issue: After taking the jeep out for the first wheeling trip since I bought it about 2 weeks ago, I noticed a vibration at about 75mph that I didn't recall having previously. Thinking it was a wheel out of balance, I thought not much of it and just drove under 75.
It started getting worse and shimmying at all freeway speeds so I figured I'd take it in to have the tires balanced before work today.

They wouldn't do it because of play in the front end. While on the lift, the guy grabbed one tire at 3 and 9 and showed me I had about 1 1/2- 2" side to side play, as if the steering box was loose (the driver's side wheel moved the same amount as he moved the passenger wheel).

I'm at work now, so I'm just asking you guys for places to start looking when I get home.

To date, I've only poked around for obvious things. The wheels themselves seem tight- wheel bearings ok, ball joints SEEMED ok but I didn't try the pry bar thing under the tire yet. I replaced the UCA bushings (NEVER AGAIN!) and still have kinks in my back from that, a month later lol.

I don't know shit about track bars, sway bars, tie rods, etc. Any of you Monrovia guys wanna stop by and have a look tonight/tomorrow, I'm open to that too. Beers on me.
Thanks...
Ed
 
bassthumb said:
happy new year! my local pick a part has 1/2 off new year's day. Now to go blow my paycheck...party1:

Here's the issue: After taking the jeep out for the first wheeling trip since I bought it about 2 weeks ago, I noticed a vibration at about 75mph that I didn't recall having previously. Thinking it was a wheel out of balance, I thought not much of it and just drove under 75.
It started getting worse and shimmying at all freeway speeds so I figured I'd take it in to have the tires balanced before work today.

They wouldn't do it because of play in the front end. While on the lift, the guy grabbed one tire at 3 and 9 and showed me I had about 1 1/2- 2" side to side play, as if the steering box was loose (the driver's side wheel moved the same amount as he moved the passenger wheel).

I'm at work now, so I'm just asking you guys for places to start looking when I get home.

To date, I've only poked around for obvious things. The wheels themselves seem tight- wheel bearings ok, ball joints SEEMED ok but I didn't try the pry bar thing under the tire yet. I replaced the UCA bushings (NEVER AGAIN!) and still have kinks in my back from that, a month later lol.

I don't know shit about track bars, sway bars, tie rods, etc. Any of you Monrovia guys wanna stop by and have a look tonight/tomorrow, I'm open to that too. Beers on me.
Thanks...
Ed
Click to expand...

Monrovia, Indiana?
 
sorry...presumptious of me. Monrovia, CA.

xalexjx... thanks, I'll check those out.
 
Cool, will do. Thanks. I noticed the vibration is worse on turns and overall is much worse than when I first noticed it 3 weeks ago. It's parked until I figure this out. :(
 
Crawl under there and have someone cycle the steering back and forth. Look for any slop in the tie rod ends or track bar. With that much free play, the problem should be visible, but I find putting your fingers on the joints will help feel small amounts of slop. From your description, I'd guess a bad tie rod end in the drag link.
 
here's what I found:
Track bar is solid.
Ball joints are solid.
Steering box allows about 3/8" play when I try to turn the wheels by grabbing the tire.
I can freely twist back and forth the tie rod ends- they are all called this, correct? at the pittman arm, and both steering knuckles. All have lots of twisting-motion free play with no resistance. The tie rod end at the pittman arm seems to have a slight shifting where it attaches to the drag link when returning from full left turn.

I'm assuming just buy new tie rod ends and I'm done? or will this mean new alignment too for sure?
 
Steering and suspension parts don't cause the kind of vibration you're feeling. Loose tie rods, track bars etc will cause overall poor handling- and may lead to death wobble or lesser forms of shimmy, which does feel like a heck of a vibration.

Your symptom though sounds more like a bad front wheel bearing.
 
that's easy enough to check, and since I've never had them torn down I may as well add it to my list.
Thanks JJacobs.
 
Tie rod ends should be free to twist by design. It's when they develop slop in the direction that the rod goes that they need to be replaced. You said 3/8" slop in the steering box? The steering arm, called the pitman arm, has slop without the steering wheel moving? That doesn't seem right.
 
lawsoncl said:
Tie rod ends should be free to twist by design. It's when they develop slop in the direction that the rod goes that they need to be replaced. You said 3/8" slop in the steering box? The steering arm, called the pitman arm, has slop without the steering wheel moving? That doesn't seem right.
Click to expand...
thanks for clarifying. You just saved me some cash :)
I don't think the slop is in the box- just went out and looked again and the shaft to the steering wheel turns too, so it's slop in the wheel lock.
 
I just recently had to diagnose some slop/clunking in my front end. Turned out the lower track bar mount hole had wallowed out and the bolt was clunking back and forth in it when I'd turn either direction. I welded a little plate with a match-drilled hole over the front of it, now it's solid, no clunk.
 
this is probably REALLLLLLY obvious, but it ran with bad control arm bushings for years, probably. Tires were inflated to 44psi also.
The tires are worn like cones tapering to the outside.... won't even stand up on their own (front is much worse than back). Since I can't, for the life of me, produce ANY movement in the hub/ball joint area jacking and prybarring (I'm 6"1 and 200lbs, standing on the bar doesn't do shit) I'm hoping the tires are just FUBAR and rotating them will tell me the story. The spare looks ok ...relative to the others. Funny how tires on the car look better than tires off...
you guys think this would do it?
 
update after rotating tires and test driving

Got my girlfriend to follow me around on the 210 today. We drove about 10 miles on the freeway and side streets. after rotating the tires, the problem is much much less noticable, and really only comes back on areas where the freeway is uneven - like where they added a lane and there's uneven surfaces and the joint is tarred you can sorta feel it. There is NO wobble visible in front or back from any angle and we swapped chase car drivers to get two perspectives. There does seem to be a lot of up down oscillation due to totally worn out shocks. I don't want to replace them with OEMs because I plan to lift it a few inches real soon.
 
I hate threads with questions like this with no closure. I think my issue was solved when I found one of the bolts for the control arm bushing I replaced had a turn or two left on it. Since then it seems much tighter and on a short freeway drive over split surfaces ther was no vibration at 70. Still needs tires and alignment, but I hope that did the trick. Thanks again fellas.
 
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