What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS, NO GUN TALK]

[Stan H]

Im just spitballing

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[Bandit’s Lair]

No not at all, which is what baffles me

Did the trail make any changes for you? Slips trips or otherwise? Any kind of impact that makes ya go “oof” could change something down under. I remember slipping off a pumpkin sized boulder out in AZ and didn’t think much of it until I looked under the jeep a couple miles down the trail because it just didnt feel “right” and I had a horseshoe for a track bar. Was a good excuse to upgrade to the XJ unit.

 

[Minty JL]

draglink adjustment Remedy that quick.
hmm maybe a worn bushing or loose bolt somewhere?
I know you said you checked all you steering.
you could be on to something
You have a sector brace already

Yes, everything installed to spec, torque and all.

 

[Schnelleee]

Did a couple mods today/yesterday. Printed an updated version of my winch cutoff mount to add a switch for underhood lights. Would make some for other people if they're interested. Also finished installing my factory inverter (chip shortage deleted mine) and got that programmed with Alfaobd. I couldn't find much information on the inverter delete install so might do a writeup on it.

 

[jmf243]

Used touch up paint on a couple chips on my hinges yesterday and installed Rock Stopperz today. I wish I had installed them the day I brought the Jeep home.

 

[RudeJeepin]

Yeah alignment wise the steering wheel is off slightly, but if I take my hand off the wheel it stays straight

Is this a new development? Or has the steering wheel always been misaligned?

 

[Minty JL]

Is this a new development? Or has the steering wheel always been misaligned?

Always been off slightly, NOT a new development

 

[Minty JL]

Used touch up paint on a couple chips on my hinges yesterday and installed Rock Stopperz today. I wish I had installed them the day I brought the Jeep home.

Yeah I installed them w/i the first week. I learned of the product from the DRC YouTube channel

 

[Supazuk]

Nothing abnormal in appearance with the tires...... they're do for a rotation though

I was going to suggest that, and to get an alignment just to get a second set of eyes on it

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I was going to suggest that, and to get an alignment just to get a second set of eyes on it

May take a 6th set of eyes. With my car's vibration - a pro axle shop, 2 tire and wheel shops, a dealership, and others failed to find the cause.
Even I failed to find the detailed reason, but I did figure out it was a wheel. But I was looking for lateral runout - a dial indicator on the rim of the wheel barely moved, so the wheel was true in that respect. Similar for the tire - no runout.
What I didn't check for was out of round. A restoration shop I took the wheels to put that one in question on their CNC machine and the guy said he knew the instant he was running the setup there was a problem. EGG shaped. I guess doing whoopdy-doos and smacking down hard into a hole can do that. I wonder if that's the reason the inner end of the axle lost a piece as well.

 

[Stan H]

May take a 6th set of eyes. With my car's vibration - a pro axle shop, 2 tire and wheel shops, a dealership, and others failed to find the cause.
Even I failed to find the detailed reason, but I did figure out it was a wheel. But I was looking for lateral runout - a dial indicator on the rim of the wheel barely moved, so the wheel was true in that respect. Similar for the tire - no runout.
What I didn't check for was out of round. A restoration shop I took the wheels to put that one in question on their CNC machine and the guy said he knew the instant he was running the setup there was a problem. EGG shaped. I guess doing whoopdy-doos and smacking down hard into a hole can do that. I wonder if that's the reason the inner end of the axle lost a piece as well.

Yes see thats what I was talking about everything looked good was tight and I hit rocks like that before and nothing happened . So when I was finally told that the rims was slightly bent I was sorta shocked.. the guy unmounted the rim put it on a tire balancing machine and you couldn't see it till you put a straight edge on it . He couldn't get the tire balanced because of it . I had to buy a new rim.
That's when I went to these steel rims. They are cheap, they look retro and I already bent another one after that and just ordered another one. Drove it slow a could days . Came in had it changed over on a Saturday. The area I am working in is rugged . It isnt that my crap is loose or anything like that at all.
I still say tire ,rim or wheel hub assembly.

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

What I didn't check for was out of round. A restoration shop I took the wheels to put that one in question on their CNC machine and the guy said he knew the instant he was running the setup there was a problem. EGG shaped. I guess doing whoopdy-doos and smacking down hard into a hole can do that. I wonder if that's the reason the inner end of the axle lost a piece as well.

What wheel was this? Steel?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

What wheel was this? Steel?

 

[Supazuk]

May take a 6th set of eyes. With my car's vibration - a pro axle shop, 2 tire and wheel shops, a dealership, and others failed to find the cause.
Even I failed to find the detailed reason, but I did figure out it was a wheel. But I was looking for lateral runout - a dial indicator on the rim of the wheel barely moved, so the wheel was true in that respect. Similar for the tire - no runout.
What I didn't check for was out of round. A restoration shop I took the wheels to put that one in question on their CNC machine and the guy said he knew the instant he was running the setup there was a problem. EGG shaped. I guess doing whoopdy-doos and smacking down hard into a hole can do that. I wonder if that's the reason the inner end of the axle lost a piece as well.

I thought my intents could be conveyed in the simplest terms and i'm pretty sure mintyknew what I meant without instructing him to do a FOD walk down or a Expanding Square pattern on the front end of his JT.

SO I will spell it out, if i was diag'ing it when i was in a shop, I would move the fronts to the rear and vise versa, Thus isolating the current front wheels / tires from the front end and getting my first elimination check

If still there , get it on a rack for a shake down, inspection and alignment looking for tow out of a caster change ... but as option have a second tech look over whatever I might have missed, Why I suggested an shop alignment to a DIY guy

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I thought my intents could be conveyed in the simplest terms and i'm pretty sure mintyknew what I meant without instructing him to do a FOD walk down or a Expanding Square pattern on the front end of his JT.

SO I will spell it out, if i was diag'ing it when i was in a shop, I would move the fronts to the rear and vise versa, Thus isolating the current front wheels / tires from the front end and getting my first elimination check

If still there , get it on a rack for a shake down, inspection and alignment looking for tow out of a caster change ... but as option have a second tech look over whatever I might have missed, Why I suggested an shop alignment to a DIY guy

And I'm pretty sure you missed what I was saying as well. You said it might take another set of eyes, I was suggesting that it could take several sets of eyes (examples are in the threads where people went to "reputable shops" and still had the issue.....) it took multiple attempts to find, and repair.

As far as swapping tires/wheels. Always do ONE at a time. Swapping both can mean you have done a lot for nothing, or - could mean you found the culprit, however, now you don't know WHICH one was the problem.
Troubleshooting dictates one change at a time, not multiples. If you swap both and it goes away, now - which one was it?
If you swap one, and it goes away - you've saved a lot of work - and you know exactly which ONE it was.
If it doesn't go away, swap the other - which is no more work in the end. If it does go away - you have identified the problem wheel/tire combo. (that's not just me saying it, it's from courses, books and experience - swap one thing at a time)

If that doesn't resolve it, move from there. But as we've seen, it may take a lot more than "just another set of eyes". Systematic troubleshooting, checking easy things first and going from there.
That was my whole point - could take more than just another set of eyes - and we've seen that over and over through the years. My point with my example was - look at how many "experts" looked things over - the axle shop is very well known and respected, but they missed it.

Caster change would take some serious damage (or serious wear).

Toe - not so much. Hitting a hole too hard, a lot can impact the toe.

I generally have an alignment check done on mine early on for a baseline - I'll know the numbers.

The cause of DW can be a stack-up of wear - not just one joint, but wear in multiple joints, all combining to allow too much play. So a small amount of wear in joints shouldn't be overlooked - the accumulative effect should also be taken into account.

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