all kinds of things wrong.

Yesterday I placed my jeep on our lift and went over every nook and cranny in hopes to figure out why it drives like hell. I get lots of drone or noise from under the Jeep and it's very annoying. On top of that I get terrible vibes and the the front end likes to shimmy and jump all over the road. Last night I found that

1. My passenger side rear wheel has slop up and down, left and right, AND in and out. I think the in and out is normal, but i know the up and down and left and right is due to a bad wheel bearing. So that's one thing to fix.

2. The yoke on the front differential is sloppy, i can move i around some and i KNOW that's not normal. I have no idea what's wrong there, i'm guessing a bearing however that doesn't mean much. For the time being, I've pulled the front driveshaft and the jeep drives down the road 80% better. Less noise, less vibrations, but i still have the front end shimmy and wandering.

3. My drivers side front wheel bearing is pretty sloppy, I'm going to replace that today. I'm hoping it will help out, but I don't know if a bad wheel bearing can cause a shimmy and wandering. I know it should get rid of some of the noise i'm hearing.

4. Both my upper and lower control arms can twist a little, i couldn't get them to move side to side. They would twist a little, and the movement seemed to be within the bushings. I'm not sure if this is acceptable or not.

5. All my U-joints and tie rod ends are tight, the tack bar is tight, so I don't know where the shimmy is coming from nor the wandering.

Your help would be appreciated. I want to get everything straightened out before I lift it to make my life just a little easier.

Is it lifted?

If it is, what is the caster?

When your caster is off its like driving a pickup with too much weight behind the rear axle--its like the front end doesn't want to touch the road and wanders.

It only has a 2" BB currently, When I got an alignment a month or so back i was told it's barely out of factory specifications, but shouldn't be too big of a problem. The only way to fix that would be new lower control arms, which are going on with the lift.

Minor caster adjustments can be made with shims at the control arm mounts.

Keep fixing those problems you have identified, and make sure everything is tight. Don't forget to check the different mounts for cracking or elongation of the bolt holes.

Sounds like you are on the right path. Don't forget to check your wheels and tires and the brake rotors too. I have seen tires that when you spin them and observe the tread there would be a swerve in the tread pattern.

I noticed the tires seemed a little oblong, but i didn't know if that was because of the bad wheel bearings ? The 2 wheels that have good bearings didn't move around nearly as much.

Did I miss where you checked out the tie rod ends and pitman arm end. Easiest way to see problems is to lay on your back underneath while someone turns the steering wheel back and forth. Changed a loose pitman arm recently, made it feel like sports car steering instead of a hay wagon.

I haven't used that method to check then, i just pulled, twisted, and yanked on everything under there and checked for movement. I changed my front wheel bearing today and the shake and shimmy is almost gone, but yet it's till there. My gut feeling tells me it's the tires are out of balance because the shimmy is almost linked to the rotation of the tires if that makes any sense.

camarors8992 said:

I noticed the tires seemed a little oblong, but i didn't know if that was because of the bad wheel bearings ? The 2 wheels that have good bearings didn't move around nearly as much.

Click to expand...

It sounds like a broken belt in the tire... 2 tires at once? What are the odds? But sure enough it would make it 'hop' all over the road.

Tires are good. I replaced the bad front wheel bearing and the shimmy is gone. I also installed an adjustable trac-bar and had the Jeep aligned. It still feels like i'm driving behind a semi- with my tires on the rumble strip. It darts left and right, never can just stay straight. I'm getting the rumble strip like vibes at 10-35, after that it smooths right out. What is the problem still ?

and I have a good pinion angle.

Maybe I'm wrong wit the angles ? I was told that the pinion should point at the t-case output shaft. However, doing some research shows me otherwise.

camarors8992 said:

Maybe I'm wrong wit the angles ? I was told that the pinion should point at the t-case output shaft. However, doing some research shows me otherwise.

Click to expand...

This would be true if you have a SYE and CV rear shaft. With a regular U joint rear shaft the pinion should be pointed pretty much level and have the same angle between it and the drivershaft as the driveshaft and the transmission output.

Well then that's the problem. Thank you for your help

can anyone help me out with the rear wheel bearing ? I'm guessing a slide hammer to remove it. In order to remove the axle there is a clip in the rear diff and a snap ring inside the axle tube holding the axle in ? I need to remove those, remove the axle, and then use the slide hammer to remove the bearing from the tube. Then put the new bearing on the axle and reinstall ? Aren't there seals in there that are going to be ruined ? Help would be nice.

it is a c-clip axle, you need to pop the cover, and remove the c-clips first
typically need to remove the cross shaft, and push the shafts in, then the c-clips usually just fall out.

then the axle shaft should slide out with very little effort.

the bearings in my D44 i was able to pull out by hand (as long as you keep them square)

Once the c-clips are removed, the axle may need a little persuasion. Pull on the axle with one hand, and wack the other side with a hammer and it should just pop-out. Take the axle to NAPA and they can replace the seal, and press on the retaining sleeve. Then just pull and replace the race in the axle housing and re-install.