Steering wheel shimy

FWD 01xj with up county option, 129,000 miles. At about 30mph steering wheel develops a a high frequency/rapid shimy/shake. Is noticable at higher speeds, but not as pronounced. I swapped the spare tire onto both left and right front positions, same symptom persists. Could not find and any loose tie rod ends or steering linkage. Hub bearings do not have excessive play. Was able to tighten two flex bolts about a half a turn, but that had no affect on the steering wheel shimy. One front axle u-joint was replaced three weeks ago, but it and the other one both have normal appearance and worked fine until the shimy started a couple of days ago. Fluid level ok in front axle, transmission and transfer case. Any body have other ideas? Thanks.

Do a search on "death wobble".

I 'll start with the obvious...tire balance. Even if you think they're ok go have them done and swap front to rear. Correct air pressure?

sbxj said:

I 'll start with the obvious...tire balance. Even if you think they're ok go have them done and swap front to rear. Correct air pressure?

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I agree. I wouldn't claasify a "shimmy" as a call to be looking at classic DW. I chased the 45-55 shimmy for a while, knowing that they (Les Schwab) just replaced all four of my tires, I discounted tire balance as an issue, but after having the same symptom (the shimmy) through 3 bouts of tire balancing I swapped the tires and rims off a friends XJ. The shimmy went away. So I took it in to a different shop (Big O) and had the original tiures balanced again, they told me my tires were "way" out of balance.

So, he balanced them, no more shimmy.

ParadiseXJ said:

I agree. I wouldn't claasify a "shimmy" as a call to be looking at classic DW. I chased the 45-55 shimmy for a while, knowing that they (Les Schwab) just replaced all four of my tires, I discounted tire balance as an issue, but after having the same symptom (the shimmy) through 3 bouts of tire balancing I swapped the tires and rims off a friends XJ. The shimmy went away. So I took it in to a different shop (Big O) and had the original tiures balanced again, they told me my tires were "way" out of balance.
So, he balanced them, no more shimmy.

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Thanks for the confirmation and you reminded me of something else.
I had an annoying shimmy on an XJ that I couldn't cure by balancing. I wasn't get rid of my new Pirelli's so I traded the OE steel wheels for some OE alloys and it went away. Your wheels could have defects that are visually undetectable. Same with tires.

sbxj said:

Thanks for the confirmation and you reminded me of something else.
I had an annoying shimmy on an XJ that I couldn't cure by balancing. I wasn't get rid of my new Pirelli's so I traded the OE steel wheels for some OE alloys and it went away. Your wheels could have defects that are visually undetectable. Same with tires.

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My wheels are the kind that you can only put the lead weights on the inside...the guy a Big O put little adhesive lead TAPE pieces on those.
The MJ has steelies on it.

I figured it out. The rear drive shaft aft U joint was bad, whoe'd a thunk! Apparently the vibration telegraphed through the running gear and into the frame and through the hard mount steering gear and up the column. Thanks for all your input.

Great and thanks for posting.
Damn un-greasable u-joints

I had a steering wheel shimmy only mine was at around 65 and it would come and go. It would shimmy for a minute then not shimmy for like 5 minutes.

I replaced(not because of the shimmy) all my steering components, u-joints, ball joints and it finally went away with the track bar replacement.