• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • 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.

Rear end wants to slide on dry roads.

Chainer

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Michigan
No, I'm not going fast, first of all. It's a Jeep not a racecar, Hehe.

I've got a 1990 Cherokee with 3" Rusty's coils, 3" OME full leaf packs, and skyjacker shocks.

Whats happening is during a left turn the rear end wants to slide out a lot, and feels shaky. The catch is that it's only going over rough roads, and it's only noticeable going left. I also feel bumps a lot more from the rear, almost as though the springs aren't flexing.

I' have re-torqued my u-bolts, and leaf spring eye bolts (with the vehicle's weight on them. It seemed to make it a hair better, but it may be wishful thinking.

This is making me think that it could be the eye bolts themselves, because when installing my lift I broke or cut all of my original bolts. I used the closest smaller standard size instead of the metric bolts because nowhere in my town had them. Even the dealers would have to order them and I needed to be able to drive my jeep to work.

I also had the weld nuts break so we cut them out, and welded a new plate with a hole drilled to the new bolt size over the original pocket and ran a longer bolt through to the inside of the frame rail where we put a new nut. We didn't trust the metal around the new piece of metal with the torque of the bolt after welding a new piece on it, it's a pretty rusty jeep. I did weld the washers to the frame rail and leaf-pocket is case it was the bolt wiggling, and again I think that helped, but not enough to be sure.

So do you think the problem is that I just fubar'ed it with the wrong bolt size?
 
sounds normal to me. ive got a gravel road near me that gets really bad washboard. (lots of bumps in the road the continue to get worse with traffic, looks like waves) when the road is dry, and doing any turns with these bumps your going to slide. with each of those bumps, especially with a leaf sprung rear your tires are going to be loosing a lot of contact time with the ground
 
So what's the problem? :)

Definitely not the different sized bolt. That's just what happens when you turn on a rough dirt road while into the throttle a little. The tires are bouncing and not keeping in contact with the road surface, so the rear end slides sideways. Technically, your shocks have too much rebound valving so the axle isn't dropping out fast enough to maintain contact with the road. I don't know anything about the skyjacker shocks, but they sound too stiff.

Also, don't over tighten the spring eye bolts, they need to be snug but not tight so the springs can move freely. You should be able to turn the bolt head with a wrench when it's tight, if you can't turn the bolt it's too tight, though I doubt this would effect handling at speed, mostly just slow speed flex.
 
Yeah I would expect something like this on a washboard or dirt road. It just feels almost dangerous how bad is is sometimes on pavement. Could it be the shocks in the rear maybe? I'm not sure how bad skyjacker is with their shocks, but new and free was a price I couldn't beat.

Thanks for the Replies.
I torqued the bolts to spec, with tires on the ground. I do expect a bit of roughness, and a tendency to slide on rough turns, from a lifted jeep with leaves in the rear. This just seems worse than it should be.
 
Last edited:
What application are the shocks for? They could be for something other than an XJ and be way too stiff. Sounds too stiff to me.
 
They were ordered for an XJ with 3" lift. The fronts seem fine, though they both come very close to bottoming out at flex.

edit: I should add I have trimmed fenders on 31's so I haven't added bumpstop extensions to the front because I don't' rub. The rear needs new bumpstops, but I've only flexed it to find out how much bumpstop I need.
 
I'm not sure I get your meaning. Care to elaborate? I do have the stock trackbar, I did not re-drill it, but did get it aligned afterwards. I suppose it could make sense that since it's off-center to the drivers side the shorter stance on the passenger side could make the rear want to come around while turning left.

Is there a way to verify this without buying a adjustable trackbar on a hunch?
 
When in doubt, gas it out. If it doesn't solve the problem, at least it ends the anticipation
:cheers:
 
Thanks again for the suggestions guys. I'm thinking about redrilling the trackbar and getting it aligned again. I've got a small about of bumpsteer, nothing I planned on doing anything about. Some people have had redrilling the trackbar fix it, but i'm wondering if the trackbar and drag link being farther from parallel might make it worse. What do you think?
 
Trackbar.

I'm not sure I get your meaning. Care to elaborate? I do have the stock trackbar, I did not re-drill it, but did get it aligned afterwards. I suppose it could make sense that since it's off-center to the drivers side the shorter stance on the passenger side could make the rear want to come around while turning left.

Is there a way to verify this without buying a adjustable trackbar on a hunch?

Trackbar. You said it was aligned but without addressing the trackbar, it can't be correct front-to-rear. It would have been fairly trivial to have re-drilled it so, why not? It wouldn't cost anything?

Also, have someone turn the steering side to side, and go look for loose components (loose trackbar bracket, sloppy steering box, worn out bushings or TRE's). Problems in the front end can easily contribute to a loose feeling when turning.

The low-end Skyjacker shockers will be stiffer than a high quality shock, and will be a large factor in the harsh ride, and lost contact on rough roads. The problem with free parts is sometimes they end up costing a lot.

Honestly - it sounds normal for a rusty 30 year old Jeep with a stiff suspension. . .
 
Last edited:
If I redrill the trackbar and don't adjust he draglink, all it will do is offcenter my steering wheel, correct?

The tires toe in should be 0 degrees, so it should be the same with the axle 3/4 of an inch over. Running it like that for a day shouldn't make anything too unmanageable at least as a test to see if a new trackbar is needed?

If the bump steer gets worse, time for adjustable, if it fixes everything... well then I just fixed everything. Then I'll probably weld some washers on the new hole to keep it from wallowing out.

Edit: Yeah, I never expected the skyjackers to be great, they were a Christmas present because they were on sale for like $120 with free shipping. Like I said, I expect it to ride a bit rough, but in a straight line it rides alright.
 
Last edited:
which shocks do you have? Skyjacker has two series, Hydro and Nitro. The Nitro shocks are a lot stiffer.
 
The Hydros are very soft shocks. With OME springs, Hydro shocks and proper shackle torque, you should have a pretty smooth side. I dunno, maybe get somebody to follow you in a section you know you get that sliding feeling.
 
Hmm, well my front leaf spring bushings no longer seem to line up.

IMG_7354.jpg

IMG_7355.jpg

IMG_7356.jpg

IMG_7357.jpg
 
Back
Top