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After many efforts I still have a shimmy...

D

Daven75

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Plainfield, IL
OK Guys, maybe someone here will know. For some odd reason I STILL have a slight shimmy at 50-54mph. I have done- Track bar, steering stabilizer, new tires, replaced a bent rim, got the tires balanced too many times to count. Passenger side U joint, drivers seems good. ummmm everything but the drag link seems in pretty good shape. once I get over 55mph'ish its gone. No death wobble, just a shimmy. Anyone got any ideas besides replace the drag link? I really don't have the money to throw at it right now. So I cant just replace anything and everything.

The jeep is a 2000 Jeep xj 4x4 with roughly 150k miles.
 
Well, in my experience any "shimmy" that you can "drive through" is related to tire/wheel balancing.

Describe your wheels/tires, and where the weights are mounted--inboard or outboard.
 
215/75/15's, stock rims, kumho solis kr21's. Weights are in and outboard. Had replaced one rim because road force balancing showed it to be dented.
 
Ok.

Running weights inboard on the wheels is less desirable from a balancing standpoint.

Any of the wheels have an excess of weights on it? If so, have your tire guys bust it down and try rotating the tire on that wheel 90 degrees, then re-balance. You want the tire positioned on the rim where it requires the least amount of weight to achieve a good balance. If that doesn't help try another 90 degrees.

I don't know if balancing beads would do you any good in those small tires.

Good luck.
 
well, the two that were on the front were road force balanced, then I rotated them, so the rears are on the front now, maybe I'll see about road force balancing these.
 
joe_peters said:
Running weights inboard on the wheels is less desirable from a balancing standpoint.
Click to expand...
That is wrong. Running weights on both sides of the wheel is part of a dynamic balance.


I had a similar problem on my 2000. A heavy shimmy. Its lifter though so it might be different on yours. The fix on mine was replacing the stock control arms with aftermarket tubular control arms. Even replacing the bushings in the stock control arms didn't help.
 
I too had the 50 mph shimmy on my XJ. I had the wheels/tires re-balanced several times...by the same indy shop. I went to another shop, big national company. No go, still had the shimmy.

Took it to yet another shop, different guy, different equipment...problem solved.

If you are having it balanced by the same shop with the same equipment (or even the same guy) the same problem will likely not get solved...IF in fact it is the tires/wheels. Just sayin'
 
I had a guy with alot more XJ experience than me look over my jeep and he said all the bushings look fine only thing we could think of was the ball joints but it didnt seem to be the case when testing them.

I got the front wheels road force balanced today and they said they were off by about 1oz each, would this be enough to cause a shake?

Everytime I had the tires balanced its been at a different place.
 
I dont even balance my bias ply iroks and drive it 65 no shimmy. My money is on a loose trackbar frame side mount. get a breaker bar out with a 18mm and really check tigthtness. And also check for worn tie rod ends and control arm bushings . Check your steering box bolts for proper torque. Axle side trackbar mount too. Ball joints usually make you wonder. How is your caster? any frame cracks around the box?

when you say shimmy, is it more like baby death wobble or driveline vibes?
 
Most retail tire stores have tire "techs" that only know how to slap on wheel weights where the machine tells them too. Give them a problem to solve or something that isn't 100% stock and they have no clue how to proceed.

You need to deal with an independent tire service shop that has Road Force Balance machines and a skilled/experienced operator. My tire shop works on ATV's to 18 wheelers and one of the guys is a Jeeper, and has been their top tire tech for the last 10-15 years. My tires are always perfect and more than once they have rotated the tire on the rim to fix a crappy retail tire store balance job.
 
Might just be the 2000. I have had mine since 04 and I have had that shimmy since I bought it stock. I now have all kinds of upgrades. In fact I just bought new wheels and tires and still have that shimmy at around 55mph. I am assuming that your shake gets worse if you hold your steering tight as opposed to loosening your grip.
 
Well the rears were road force balanced but the front weren't so I figured what the hell, $25 isn't bad so I had them road force balanced and it seemed to help 99%. Enough for me to not care. I haven't been on highway speeds yet so Idk how it is there but so far so good
 
I have the same 50-54mph shimmy.

Oddly, it only happens when it's warm outside. Too many other things to fix for me to think twice about it. 2000 with 121,600 on it
 
hada front caliper seal start hanging up the pistol a hair. This gave me the exact thing you have had going on. Only reason I figured it out was I replaced everything while doing a break up grade and poof gone
 
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