OK long story short my '93 XJ had a bad front wheel bearing/hub assembly. Slight vibration and noise and if you jacked it up and grabbed the tire at 12:00 and 6:00 there was noticable movement. Changed the hub assembly today and it is now nice and tight tire wise and the noise is gone but after I get up to 45-55 there is a slight vibration. Once at highway speed 65mph or so for a couple of miles it started to shake and wobble enough I actually thought the wheel was coming off! Pulled off the road and checked tightness on everything and it all looked fine so I took off and it seemed fine for a few miles then the bad wobble again. What could have gone wrong? All the bolts are nice and snug. I tightened the hub nut up as much as I could with a 18" breaker bar and 2 foot piece of pipe. Is it possible that's just not enough? Any ideas are appreciated.

 

I would put a guess its your tire. Depending how long the hub had been failing the tire will wear and settle in based on how the suspension has been sitting. I say this from my own personal experience with similar vibes after modifying the suspension some. I was going to start replacing parts but then fall/winter came and now a few thousand miles later the vibrations are all gone.

Just something to consider.

 

Rotate that side tires and test drive.

 

I shall head out and mess with the tires and report back.

 

It's from the tire wearing funny, I'm going through the same thing right now. Needed an alighnment so my tires wore funny and now that its aligned and the iron rock double shear track bar is on it wobbles at 55mph. I assume it will go away soon, I'm rotating my tires evey 1k

 

OK rotated the back tire to the front and no change. But I did notice that the front tires seem badly out of alignment. I know there is suppose to be a certain amount of "toe-in"/"toe-out" so they won't be perfectly in line but with the drivers side tire perfectly straight the amount the passenger side tire is angled outward on this XJ is a LOT more than my '94.

So I guess I will take enough apart tomorrow to see if I could have possibly done anything that caused this and if everything looks properly in place as far as the new hub I will adjust the tie rod and bring the tire in line a bit. It won't be perfect but it's so far off that it will have to be better.

I guess my last question is..Could this horrible alignment have been the cause of the old hub/wheel bearing going bad and if so did the old front tie adjust over time so it wasn't as noticeable?

 

That should keep you busy nicely....

 

A bad alighnment can cause all sorts of things I would guess. Mine was toed out like yours and was causeing uneven tire wear.
Get it aligned

 

 

Just a thought here, but you have checked to make sure everything was put back and tight. Did you put the tie rod end back in the same way it came out? If you got it turned and put back in the wrong way, it could also cause the alignment to be off. I wouldn't think that the wheel bearing/hub going bad, would cause the alignment to be off that much......RR

 

Hello. Thanks for all the input guys. Was messing with the newer XJ today and here's what I discovered. It now seems the drivers side hub assembly is bad also. This seems odd because when I discovered the bad passenger side one I had it up on jack stands and the drivers side wheel seemed good and tight then. Now I changed the one side and the other side has a good bit of play when grabbing it at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions. So I'll change that one later this week as well and see.

As far as the alignment when it's sitting on the ground and I lay a board across the edge of the tires near the top of the rim it seems as if one is way out of alignment with the other based on the angle of the board in relation to the body. But measuring with a tape measure across the front and rear sides of the tires shows there is only about 1/8" of an inch difference so the tires have to be aligned right. Or am I missing something completely?

 

That really depends on if it's 1/8th of an inch toed out or in.
If that's toed in, that doesn't seem too bad. If that's toed out, that would not be good. (if I remember correctly) lol

 

OK back again. I have now replaced both hub assemblies and both wheels are nice and tight with no play in them. Rotated the front wheels to the back. Still get a horrible wobble at approaching 55MPH. I mean like the front end is noticably shaking and it seems as if a wheels coming off. But once backed down to below 50MPH it goes away. I've researched "Death Wobble" and find every item on the entire front end listed as a cause. But considering this didn't start to happen until after I replaced the front hub what might that lead someone to think as a cause?

 

You might need to have the balance of the wheels checked or that neither rim is bent. If the hubs are new then you shouldnt have that problem with them. Also, what is the condition of your knuckle u joints or the ds u joints? Its just there are quite a few causes of death wobble that you must check virtually everything in trying to eliminate it.

 

U joints shouldnt cause much of a shakeing. More of a vibraton. However, everyjeep is different. When resolving front end issues nothing, absolutely nothing should be left out. Play in worn components could cause all sorts of issues. Check all tie rod ends, rods, track bar both sides, and mounting bracket, ball joints, hell man even check if your axle Is bent, check toe in and out check camber and caster I mean ANYTHING. we have all been there. Get wheels 're balanced. Have a buddy with the jeep on and you under it turn the wheel left to right. Don't just look for play. Place your index finger on all steering and suspension components feeling for play. Something is messed up all you gotta do is find it,
Good luck and please report back if you resolve it