What have I done... (diagnosing severe wobble but not DW)

[Bonanza]

Update- moog TRE from Amazon came but it’s for JKs. Man that thing is STIFF. (Twss). I ordered a new Drag link end, OEM, and it is not nearly as stiff. I’m not certain it’s going to do much to help.

Sponsored

 

[Bonanza]

Update- with the onset of summer, the wobble has largely disappeared. The tie rod end made very little difference.

I just replaced the ball joints as well. At 16k miles they weren’t “shot”, but did not feel up to task of handling the 37s.

The wobble now, is gone. This is common during the summer, and I feel the biggest culprit is the tires. The heat has made them more pliable, and it’s possible the wobble has simply gone into hibernation.

 

[@californiajeeping]

Since I was a kid, I spend more time in tech books, parts manuals, service bulletins, whatever. My parents encouraged it. I don't read novels generally speaking - unless it's Asimov. My book shelves are loaded with plans for making things, libraries of service manuals (not the generic Chiltons). I get bored extremely easily and cant shut down in the evening so fill my time with reading and research.

In some cases there's just not the bolt length to stretch and put under tension. And with tapered lug nuts, you have more grip anyway. That taper is strong. Tapers are used for ball joints, tie rods, props on boats, and for decades, held the hubs on rear axles.
I guess AMC did a sort of similar thing on their differentials - on new assemblies the axle was to protrude through the hub a specific amount. If it didn't, you used the nut on the axle and greased washers to pull it through until you got there. I think it was something like 11/32". Then you took the nut off, wiped everything down, removed all grease, and torqued the nut back on to 250 ft/lb. The nut held the hub onto the axle in a pressure or tension situation, the hub was in a sense stretched onto the axle because of the taper. If done properly they'd handle a heck of a lot of power and torque.
Anyway, in the case of lug nuts, you just don't have a lot of bolt length, and the taper is there. The stresses are also a lot different.

I had three different career paths to choose from. I wanted to be a mechanic from the time I was 12 or so. My parents encouraged me. I got to HS and skipped the first two of the three classes. My teacher suggested I go into teaching automotive, but changed his mind after a while and groomed me for a future troubleshooting and repairing. I got to college, similar thing - I was told I could do either, things were wide open. Then I get a job in a shop right out of college by showing the service manager what was wrong with a Ford he had been working on. He was hot and frustrated. I read the scope, told him what I thought, he followed up and it was fixed. He said I started the following Monday.
After a year I got a call from the general manager of the local AMC/Jeep dealership offering me the job of service manager. I turned him down (I REALLY liked my boss then)
Some days I do wonder -what if I'd gone another way, gotten a degree, and taught, or what if I'd told that Jeep dealership yes?
I love learning, discovering, figuring things out.
The day I learn nothing new I'll be buried in the back yard by the oak tree, next to the cats.......maybe finally that tree will start growing a bit.

Great discussion on torque specs that came up when googling it installing my lift...

I just fing ran them in with my ipact after i drove it around the yard to settle everything.

Works perfect. with clevite bushings its not a huge deal. Tight is tight and not tight will let the sleeve slip. Too tight will snag on the rubber by bending the control arm mounting brackets. Few dugga uggas works good.

 

[Bonanza]

Update-- New tires, new balljoints, and a metalcloak steering brace have SOLVED my wobble issues.

 

[Elff]

So you had out of balance tires from day 1.
Classic.

 

[Orange01z28]

This is a good discussion

Why would over-tightening something like track bar or control arms be bad?

 

[Bonanza]

So you had out of balance tires from day 1.
Classic.

I had mine road-force balanced and everything. I just think the patagonia's are cheap for a reason. However, I'll say I saw noticeable improvement when I changed the ball joints when I re-geared. I didn't have any wobbling since the ball joints, but that was summer. My biggest issues were when the cold weather hits. I suspect it was due to the patagonia's flatspotting overnight, as I never seemed to get wobble issues on the drive home from work.

If I was a betting man, I'd say that the #1 culprit was the tires.

 

[Bonanza]

This is a good discussion

Why would over-tightening something like track bar or control arms be bad?

In theory it could fatigue the threads, causing them to fail, bend brackets, damage bushings. However, you'd need to really bust on it to achieve that damage. Not enough torque is what is actually "bad", but overtight just doesn't give you any appreciable benefit, with the potential for causing unneeded wear or damage.

 

[Ted Striker]

My Gladiator is at the Jeep shop right now for the exact same thing. Not DW, but severe wobble when hitting potholes, uneven road surfaces, etc. Same speed too - around 35 mph to 45 mph. I had already suspected the ball joints and so has the Jeep shop. They're putting it on the rack this morning to confirm.

 

[Wet Willys]

I'm kind of in the same boat with a slight wobble issue. I changed tires because the Yokohama M/Ts I had on there were getting pretty worn and they ride like crap anyways. It helped, but I still get a bit of steering wobble when going over chatter bumps, and a clunk from the RF. Everything seems tight and I can't see any movement in the ball joints when prying on the tire with it jacked up by the axle. Super frustrating because I know there's something causing the clunk sound and wobble, I just can't find anything obvious. I guess I'll try replacing the ball joints next.

Sponsored