Serious Issues! Please help!!

Well, as most of you know my XJ has been having DW issues between 30-50 MPH when I hit hard on one side or the other.

I tracked that down to the absence of control arm drop brackets/brace b/c the angle of the LCA's was too steep.

Well, to get to the problem. I was wheeling last night, beat the xj up on some hills, no big deal. And then drove, on the main road, up to 65 MPH to take my friends sister back home. And the XJ had no problems.

After that me and my buddy went on some trail rides just to find other areas. Simple, flat, sandy trails. NOTHING but little bumps and loose sand.

We stop for a minute, and I hear a slight sssshhhhhhhh sound, so I get out of the xj. Remembering, that lately, when I go to get new gas, and take off the gas cap, it goes PSH for a second, and then its done.

Well, I loosened the cap, with the XJ running, and it just kept going PPPPPPSHHHHHHHHH next thing you know, the XJ acts like its carburated and starved for fuel, and sputters to a stop. I try to start it, and it would run for a sec, and then stall, even tho Id try to keep the RPM's up. But to no avail.

After about 5 tries, it ran fine.

So we continues just to the end of this dirt path, about 3 blocks, and got on the road.

Now here's the second problem, now, as SOON as i hit 35, on the button, every time, SEVERELY BAD OH SHIZEN IM GONNA DIE I CANT CONTROL THE XJ kinda death wobble.

I know I still need the RE Drop brackets and braces, but why would before it would only happen to me when I hit a bump, and now it does it at 35 to a tee?

Sorry it so long, but thanks in advance guys, any insight on anything would be great!!

the problem with fuel kind of sounds like you got crud on one of the wires coming off the fuel pump or something to that effect.

did you visually inspect your allignment again? does it look off at all? when i had DW issues related to control arms angles i got it alligned.. made it home from where i was working on it.. and couldnt move it till i got longarms. just because for whatever reason it would not hold an allignment whatsoever.

it was aligned a week ago, and was fine, tracked straight last night up to 30 mph, and I also inspected it, to the best of my ability, and it was ace....

For the DW I would suspect you tweaked something while wheeling it, that would account for the changed dynamics. As far as the fuel...I have no idea, plugged vent line maybe, failed pressure regulator, plugged return line, crimped pressure line?

Rev

The DW is tough to pin because of all the variables. I know that you were just championing the uniqueness of our Cherokee tribe but keep in mind that there are some issues with wheeling a cherokee as well. Namely alignment. We are sheet metal on sheetmetal, i.e. no frame. It doesn't take much to tweak a cherokee especially a lifted one and those little LCA's don't help any.

Best thing is to get you one of those big A$$ flat head screwdrivers and use it to pry on all the ends and see if there is a lot of play in them. Also lift the front and pull on the wheels and see if there's any movement in upper's and lowers. Have someone flip the wheel a bit and see if there is play at the pitman arm. Check the usual track bar at the axle. Also check to see if you dinged your drivelines at all. How about upper and especilally lower CA bushings?

Sorry for the huge list and I'm sure that you have checked a lot of these. DW is just such a difficult thing to diagnose. Good Luck and keep us posted.

Speed_racer said:

SEVERELY BAD OH SHIZEN IM GONNA DIE I CANT CONTROL THE XJ kinda death wobble.

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Wow - been there, done that! And don't want to go back...

There are so many causes for DW, as you will see by doing some simple searches. However, I will just share with you what cured mine. It was a loose upper track-bar bracket. I thought I had the bolts tighter than my boss on raises. I replaced them with some new grade-8 bolts and plenty of red-locktite. That did the trick.
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The fuel problem to me sounds like a failing fuel-pump.

Dude, I know nothing about DW, but don't sweat the fuel. Gas tanks build pressure and you let that out when you take off the cap. It sounds like it had alot of pressure from wheeling, and the fuel pump was unable to keep up with the sudden depressurization. The fuel pump may even have cavitated a bit. At the gas station your engine isn't running when you take the cap off. (shouldn't be!) Bottom line, you starved the engine, and now it's all better.

I know I still need the RE Drop brackets and braces, but why would before it would only happen to me when I hit a bump, and now it does it at 35 to a tee?

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RE drop brackets wont cure your DW, I and many other have ran lifts over 6" without them for years, you will need to cack up the xj and support it by the frame then check for loose stuff, track bar mount or bolts, bad tre's, if they feel looseby shaking teh tie rod or drag link they are bad and need replaced. lower teh Xj and jack up one wheel @ a time you want it to just touch the ground use a pry bar and block of wood under the front of teh tire and pry the tire off the ground and watch the ball joints if there is any, and I mean any movement in the joints they msut be replaced, and dont trust a shop to set the alignment right. 90% of the time they set it up with too much toe in so it tracks straight down the road, your toe in should be set @ zero, check it with a tape measure by measuring the center of one tire tread to the same spot on the other tire tread first in front and then on the rear of the tires, the measure ment from the rear of teh two tires and the front of the two tires should be the same

I know I'll catch alot of flak about DW, but I can't hep it. I've driven my Heep (and it IS a heap) with bad LCA bushings, loose TBs, loose control arms, loose wheel bearings, etc etc. I've had DW twice and both times it was toe.

I think when you wheel an XJ with the inverted Y steering you have a much better chance of tweaking the alignment than with a crossover steering setup. Why? Well because of the way the draglink & tie rod come together. As the suspension cycles your toe changes throughout the range of motion. If your springs sag a little or your alignment changes, so does your toe thus DW. Just a theory.....

it sounds like you have a bad steering dampener the only time I ever had DW it got progesivly worst then I replaced that and boom perfect.

it sounds like you have a bad steering dampener the only time I ever had DW it got progesivly worst then I replaced that and boom perfect.

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Your problemis still there the steering stabalizer is just hiding it, I didnt even run a stabalizer most of the time.

Like someone said: Check all the steering stuff. The draglink bends easily on that setup, also crank on that trackbar. at least 165 lbs of torque and use grade 8 bolts and locktite. try adjusting the play out of your steering box and check it for loose or cracked mounting bolts. Play with the toe, from none in to 3/8 inch, you may find a combo that works. IOW's get creative. But only try one thing at a time or you'll get confused.

azxjman said:

it sounds like you have a bad steering dampener the only time I ever had DW it got progesivly worst then I replaced that and boom perfect.

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That would be a BandAid for your real problem. I dont run dampners they inhibit flex.

k7ant said:

...crank on that trackbar. at least 165 lbs of torque
Play with the toe, from none in to 3/8 inch...

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165 ft/lbs when the spec calls for 62 ft/lbs at the axle and 74 at the chassis end. That's a sure way to ruin a bolt with too much stretch. And, running excess toe is another cover-up that trades tire wear for a temporary solution.

Your wheeling in the hills probably resulted in a change to your toe-in. The toe-in is resulting in a torque at the contact patch. The aligning forces of castor and SAI resist this torque which causes a shimmy. When you approach a wheel rotation speed that matches up with the natural frequency of the unspung mass of the front end, excess play somewhere in your worn steering or front end linkage is allowing this shimmy to turn into DW

As for the steering damper, I'll continue to run mine until I can prove the factory engineers were wrong to include it.

Oh common Max, the factory engineers never had 14" of shock travel......... If your front end is working correctly, what do you need a steering damper for?