I need help with my front end

My 90 xj w/4wd is behaving funny. When i turn and hold the wheel in a consant turn the wheel bounces back and forth in a rough sawing motion. but when i am ging strait it is fine. I need and alighnment b/c the car pulls slightly to the right when driving down the road. also the sway bar link on the right side hits the coil sring when the jeep is on jack stands and the front suspention is at full drop. Every thing thing on the front is original exept the sway bar links. what i wanted to know was 1) how do you know when ball joints or the tie rod ends go bad. 2) what typicaly gose bad fist on the front end 3) do any of you have any ideas what might be wrong or have any sugestions?

Thanks for your help
Curtiss

(1) Do you have a front locker?

(2) Are you certain you're not in 4WD?

(3) Check the u-joints on the front axle shafts.

I dont have a front locker, I know i am not in 4wd, and what am i checking for on the u joints? I have noticed a squeaking noise coming from the front passenger side when turning, but it only dose it some times.

I had this exact problem with mine... the front u-joints should make it do that a little bit when turning, even in 2wd, but not an outrageous amount like mine was doing it. I also had that intermittent squeak when turning, sounded like a long, slow creaking sort of noise... but it only happened sometimes, and usually just when I was moving slowly in a parking lot or something.

The problem turned out to be a bad u-joint. It was really stiff on one axis because some of the needle bearings were cock-eyed in there and there was no grease, so when turning the wheel, I was forcing that axis of the u-joint to rotate when it didn't want to, which was causing it to creak and squeal when I turned the wheel. That's what caused the jumpy see-sawing of the front wheels back and forth when I was turning sharp too.

Give it a look... but you might have to take the axle shaft out to see. I thought mine was in good shape as there wasn't any play in it when I grabbed ahold of it and wiggled it, but when I took the axle shaft out while I was replacing the ball joints, I realized what the problem was.

I second the bad Ujoint.

Thanks for the input. I have another question now, how do i take the axle shaft out? do i need to replace the bearings or any seals when i do it? and is replacing the u-joints on the axle shaft the same as replacing them on the rear axle?

curtiss

Front axle UJs are not too bad if your hub cooperates...

"Special tools" needed are an E16 torx socket for the two caliper bolts, and a 12/13mm (?) 12 point socket for the three hub bolts. The hub is a tight (taper) fit into the steer knuckle. Mine took a fair amount of abuse to remove the first time. Sand the rust & funk off em and treat them to a coat of anti-seize or grease upon reinstall.

I swap my UJs with the hub still attached to the stub axle... a bit awkward but easier than messing with that big nut unless ya have to.

The major difference with front UJs is that the clips are on the inside of the caps... be sure the new clips get seated properly. The rest is the same as driveshaft joints

Well that dose not sound to bad then, thank you for your help.

Curtiss

Re: I need help removing front axle shafts

do i need to remove the axle diconect shift fork to remove the passenger side axle to change the axle shaft u-joints?

and dose any know of any web pages that have pics of reomving the axle shafts?

thanks,
Curtiss
90' xj 4X4, 4.0L