slowly fixing my DW

I have slowly been getting the DW on my 96 XJ (w/ 3" of lift) under control. At this point I have a minimal amount of vibration at 54-57 mph while driving straight. It is very similar to a tire being out of balance. I have had them all balanced with no issues. It is worse in relatively sharp turns at these speeds. You can definately feel that it wants to cut loose in corners.

What I have done so far: new shocks, new steering dampner, alignment, tires balanced, adjustable track bar, made sure every TRE, etc is tight, tight. I think that is it.

I have checked for tire movement wondering if the king pins need replacing and they feel tight. No movement in the wheel from top to bottom. However, at 112,000 miles would it be time well spent to go ahead and replace them.

Also, When I installed the adjustable trackbar I had the axle centered to about 3/8" off. Is that too much? Should I get it closer.

Does anybody have any thoughts as to why it wants to DW when going around corners? I understand that interia is at play in corners, but I was just wondering where the stress goes to in the steering/suspension components.

Thanks for the help I've gotten her on this.

I was told my DW was from axle u-joints. Keep in mind mine is a stock XJ. It does the same thing as yours. Slight wobble on 50mph and up, more wobble when in high speed curves on the highway.

Thanks for the info Jeepm@n. I'm heading to the garage here in a few and will be checking them out.

Are you sure you have DW, and not just a plain old wobble or vibration. the wobble in corners is a symptom of bad U-joint. Your vibe in at 54-57 could be Ujoint, tire balance, bearings, Driveshaft. DW is a violent shaking of the whole front end, usually at speed above 50, in a straight line and after a slight bump, and will not go away without slowing or stopping.

When they did your alignment.. did they adjust your caster, it has alot to do with DW. Are you using stock control arms or are they adjustable? This is what fixed mine, adjusting the caster angle.

magimerlin said:

When they did your alignment.. did they adjust your caster, it has alot to do with DW. Are you using stock control arms or are they adjustable? This is what fixed mine, adjusting the caster angle.

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Even more important is what are the #'s!Most shops try to align to factory(non-lifted) specs which dont apply to a lifted rig!

RCP Phx said:

Even more important is what are the #'s!Most shops try to align to factory(non-lifted) specs which dont apply to a lifted rig!

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That is very true.

I would check axle bearings mine wore out a while ago and gave me some grief. Also, i know it's expensive... but have you looked into CA drop brackets or even a long arm? Thats what cured mine. Not just covered up but it's totally gone now. same thing with both my friends that have jeeps, one xj one zj. Rides better now too with probably double the flex... Just sayin that's what worked for me. Chased down the DW for years changing this and that, finaly got fed up and got the LA kit havent felt it since.

magimerlin said:

When they did your alignment.. did they adjust your caster, it has alot to do with DW. Are you using stock control arms or are they adjustable? This is what fixed mine, adjusting the caster angle.

Click to expand...

X2. i had a slight vibration from 47-52 felt like an outta balanced tire. when i was lifted just 2 inches and when i hit the brakes it made it way worse, after i installed a 4.5" lift and longer LCA's that vibration went away, i couldnt believe the caster made that much of a difference but it really does, i would invest in LCA's now and get them adjustable, they will only benefit you in the long run. and um, dont take it to just any tire shop, see if they do lifted vehicles or take it to like 4wp's. right now my xj is toe'd in a half inch, i need to adjust it in about 3/8's to fix my toe. i read somewhere it said on 4wd xj's your suppose to have about a 1/16 to 1/8 difference between the front and rear of your front tires so check that out too. but i can bet you if your running stock LCA's your caster's off.

I think aligning to stock specs is a very good point. I live in a fairly rural area and the shop I used for the alignment probably did just that because alignments are not their specialty.

93gc40,
I have referred to it as DW because it had before and in the corners it feels like it still wants to do the same thing, but you're probably right that it really isn't DW anymore.

Thanks for all the input guys. I would not have considered axle ujoints as a possible cause.