Wheels

Has anyone ever had trouble with factory wheels? My '92 came with 10 hole alloys, and they got to a point where the surface on the back got so oxidized and fuzzy that they could not be torqued properly or they would warp the drum or hub that they were on. About a year ago, I replaced them with the common 5-spoke steelies from a '95 Sport. Now these wheels are also bad, with two out- of-round, and the other two wobbling slightly side to side. They've been on three different balancing machines, wearing two different sets of tires, and still mis-behave the same way. What's the chances of two sets of bad wheels? What would be a good replacement? there are many reasonably priced after-market wheels- much cheaper than OEM - even from the boneyard, but I don't want to change the offset or back-spacing and cause handling issues, or worse yet, the Dreaded Jeep Wobbles. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Considering the kind of use some Jeeps get, I'd say the chance of two bad sets of wheels is pretty good. But the question arises whether the wheels are really at fault. When they ran them on the balancing machine, they should have noticed any warping or out-of-round condition. Before doing too much more, I'd check for bent axles and damaged seating surfaces on the vehicle.

Sounds like there's more going on other than just the wheels. If the runout on those steelies were within spec to begin with, I highly doubt they would be knocked out of spec without some help. Are you sure they were good when you bought them ? where did you get them ?

I've purchased a lot of steel wheels from bone yards ... beware!

You can try here ... they have Jeep OEM wheels from just about any year/model.

http://www.aaarims.com/

I forgot... another option is to call around to various Jeep dealers. Sometimes they'll have take-offs in the parts department. You can get all four wheels with new tires fairly cheap.