• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

any help would be appreciated :)

XJ4Christ

XJ4Christ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Topeka, KS
Hi all,

Sorry I havent been around much after i had lasted posted things had got very busy for me.

I have the following issue:

I took my jeep to get an allignment for death wobble (my mechanic friend advised me to do this or get tires balanced.. they might have fix a flat in them too as they are old). Alignment shop said they couldnt do allignment for following: bad upper and lower ball joints, track bar, tie rod at pitman arm, steering stabilizer weak and weak front and rear shocks.

I dont have a lot of money and guy I got it from is pretty sure it shouldnt be ball joints. Is there a way that I can rule the ball joints out of the situation without an allignment being done? Maybe a way to trouble shoot it with budget in mind? Any help would be gold! For those of you who replied to my post awhile back i think someone wanted a look at my XJ but i havent figured out how to put pictures on here.... :). I do have a link i will put here if you want to see it. It is nothing special atm, but I hope someday it will be as impressive as some of your XJ's! :). http://www.jeep4christ.com

Brian
 
The shop u went to were a bunch of A holes
but if u want to check it out yourself jack up the front tires and grab the tire at the top and bottom and wiggle it if there is slop you will be able to see it

now as far as the shop is concerned yes they cant give u an alignment that makes everything ride like stock but they can still allign the tires so u wont get the death wobble basicly the toe in/toe out, The pinion angle will most likely be off if u havnt changed out the control arms ... and if u havnt gone to an adjustable trac bar then ur tires will be off center ... the axle shifts to the left as u lift it
 
Where are you located? Maybe a couple of guys here are close to you and can look at it for you. There is a ton of knowledge and experience at your fingertips.

No need to spend a ton of money guessing at things.
 
WraithKWK said:
The shop u went to were a bunch of A holes
Click to expand...
Unless you have more info than the rest of us, you're out of line.

Any GOOD shop is going to suggest replacing any KNOWN BAD component. Calling them a holes for wanting to cover their bases and get everything in one shot is just not fair to them. Have you already inspected his Jeep and know the Ball joints are good??? If not, put a lid on it. I am tired of people on this board bashing shops for doing their jobs, charging fair prices (maybe not as free as you'd like), etc, etc.
 
JohnX said:
Unless you have more info than the rest of us, you're out of line.

Any GOOD shop is going to suggest replacing any KNOWN BAD component. Calling them a holes for wanting to cover their bases and get everything in one shot is just not fair to them. Have you already inspected his Jeep and know the Ball joints are good??? If not, put a lid on it. I am tired of people on this board bashing shops for doing their jobs, charging fair prices (maybe not as free as you'd like), etc, etc.
Click to expand...
Dont forget what forum your on John. We like it cheep or free here. We dont need no stinkin shop owners trying to make a living. we have lift parties and gimme threads.:)
 
JohnX said:
Unless you have more info than the rest of us, you're out of line.

Any GOOD shop is going to suggest replacing any KNOWN BAD component. Calling them a holes for wanting to cover their bases and get everything in one shot is just not fair to them. Have you already inspected his Jeep and know the Ball joints are good??? If not, put a lid on it. I am tired of people on this board bashing shops for doing their jobs, charging fair prices (maybe not as free as you'd like), etc, etc.
Click to expand...
I have to agree with JohnX, the shop is telling you how to get the best result from the maintenance on your ride. It would be a waste of money to align a vehicle with a bunch of worn out parts. If this vehicle is more than a few years old it probably needs these parts. People often expect too much from shops for too little.
 
Sorry for the rant, but I have customers give me this attitude all the time....it gets old. I tell them they have a bad plug that burned out a coil, then they want me to just throw on a new coil to save $30 on a set of spark plugs. Then they get pissed at me when I explain to them that if they don't replace the plug, the new coil will burn out too. They act like I'm trying to "up sell" or rip them off in some way, all because I actually did my job and found the cause of the problem.

Again, sorry...it been a long week already.


But....I stand by my post.
 
99xjache said:
Dont forget what forum your on John. We like it cheep or free here. We dont need no stinkin shop owners trying to make a living. we have lift parties and gimme threads.:)
Click to expand...

Where the fawk has your dumb ass been???
 
Thank you for the info so far everyone :) Yeah it is lifted with 3 inch lift running 31 inch older BFG tires. I live and work in Hesperia CA. I had talked to my mechanic friend, he told me he can check the ball joints and that (front end has about 90,000 miles on it) with vehicle with that mileage plus going offroad it is good possiblity ball joints could be issue. I will check the tire movement thing too that you suggested. As for control arms, with pinion angle being off and an adjustable track bar shifting the axil left off center I will have to look at those more closely as well. I will also look at the angle of the track bar as suggested to see if it is parelel with the tie rod. my track bar is supposto be adjustable, however it is homemade by guy i got jeep from and we believe it is good, but then again I am new to this :).

Is there anything on my back end (with the lift) that I should double check as well?
 
When u guys say that the track bar should be parallel to the tie rod, are u talking about the drag link?(the link from the pitman arm to the right knuckle)
 
XJ4Christ said:
Thank you for the info so far everyone :) Yeah it is lifted with 3 inch lift running 31 inch older BFG tires. I live and work in Hesperia CA. I had talked to my mechanic friend, he told me he can check the ball joints and that (front end has about 90,000 miles on it) with vehicle with that mileage plus going offroad it is good possiblity ball joints could be issue. I will check the tire movement thing too that you suggested. As for control arms, with pinion angle being off and an adjustable track bar shifting the axil left off center I will have to look at those more closely as well. I will also look at the angle of the track bar as suggested to see if it is parelel with the tie rod. my track bar is supposto be adjustable, however it is homemade by guy i got jeep from and we believe it is good, but then again I am new to this :).

Is there anything on my back end (with the lift) that I should double check as well?
Click to expand...

I live in in phelan on the east end. Bring your rig over and we can take a look at everything.

There are many things that can cause DW. I am on vacation this week but I will be down the hill tomorrow so anytime after that I can give you a hand.

Just let me know,

Leep
 
so to do an alignment his entire suspension needs to be replaced ....
Yea cause it all falls apart at the same time

not very likely
 
I have a Rancho SS off a ZJ I am selling for cheap if you are interested, only used for like 7-9 months I think...


When I had DW, I had to get RE Extreme duty TB and Bracket in order to stop it...
 
If you do a search on Death Wobbles here you will get lots of information.
It would be much easier if one of us could take a look at it first.
Did you get the wheels balanced? Rotated?
Any obvious bad wear indicators?
With less than 100K on it, I'd bet your ball joints are still okay, but without seeing it, who knows?
Don't give the shop guy any grief, a shop's job is to get things back to factory specs, and that could very well be what they were going for.

Rick
 
I live in Hesperia, I would be more than welcome to help you check it out!!
 
WraithKWK said:
so to do an alignment his entire suspension needs to be replaced ....
Yea cause it all falls apart at the same time

not very likely
Click to expand...

After this...
XJ4Christ] (front end has about 90,000 miles on it) with vehicle with that mileage plus going offroad it is good possiblity ball joints could be issue. I will check the tire movement thing too that you suggested. As for control arms, with pinion angle being off and an adjustable track bar shifting the axil left off center I will have to look at those more closely as well. I will also look at the angle of the track bar as suggested to see if it is parelel with the tie rod. my track bar is supposto be adjustable, however it is homemade by guy i got jeep from and we believe it is good, but then again I am new to this :).
Click to expand...

I would say that it is VERY LIKELY all the front suspension components are in fact worn and need to be replaced, as suggested from the alignment shop.
 
thx for theh replies!

I am getting with my mechanic buddy tomorrow morning to see about checking the ball joints condition to see if they are too bad to go wheelin this saturday. We are going to also see about putting a manual alignment on it for time being to bring toe in.

I havent had tires balanced and rotated (i was hoping the alignment shop would have done that but I didnt ask for it up front as I wanted to see if alignment to correct bring the toe in would help first). Tires are old and worn and possibly could be issue as well. I know if i run a lower tire pressure up front tires the death wobble doesnt happen until about 45 mph. If i put lets say 35 psi in the BFG tires front and back for street driving I get DW at 30-35 mph and if i hit bumps at 20ish (potholes and such.. alot of em in Hesperia) I get DW wanting to happen.

I would like to get with some of you guys in future, but it wont be right away as I just got a house and am moving into it as we speak. Do you all have club meetings in High Desert where we might meet up as well?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Bent
New Forum Format Coming Soon.
Replies
6
Views
370
need-a-bow
need-a-bow
X
Making the frame purdy
2 3
Replies
49
Views
772
Bent
Bent
9
88 Lower ball joint seems stiff
Replies
7
Views
2K
90xj06
9
M
1992 Electronic Control Module - Can these be purchased new anymore?
Replies
8
Views
171
lawsoncl
L
M
Steering wheel stuck after sitting outside a few days
Replies
2
Views
1K
maxbraketorque
M
Back
Top