mayko

So today i picked up a 98 cherokee sport 4x4 4 door with 180k miles. that car starts up and runs very nice when i test drove it.

today was also the first day i took it out on the highway and was going about 60-70 mph when all of a sudden it was like WTF. I felt like i was going over a thousand pointy speed bumps. i slowed the jeep back down to 45 and it want back to normal driving. i tried again and nothing but i only pushed it to 65 on I 80. went that speed till i got home and just cant thinking of anything.


i thought about the wheel balance, and all tires are inflated to 32psi but wheel balanced i feel the car maybe make a little noise not shake the car the way it was shaking.

i also thought about a broken axle or a bad drive line but not sure.

if anybody could help me out on this its very weird.

thanks jeepers.

dan7890

check the driveshaft u joints.

red97cherokeewithsunroof

yeah check every u-joint and it wouldn't hurt to get it aligned...has it been lifted at all?

mayko

If it has been in the past I am not sure. Right now its stock.

What should I look for on the drive shat. Should there be any type of play if so how much play

Also I am going to get a wheel balance and also alighment. I'm asking because I bought this car for the wife and want her to be safe.

Thanks for the help.

CAEMI

If the vibration came on "all of a sudden" you either threw a wheel weight, a driveshaft balance weight, or one of the tires suffered a "belt separation". If it is SEVERE, it is probably belt sep. If it is just "alarming" but not severe...wheel weight. If it's aggravating but not alarming, DS weight.

I doubt...very much...if it has anything to do with alignment. It is possible that u-joints are the culprit but vibrations from u-joints build up over time and don't appear "suddenly". Ditto for wheel bearings, etc.

From your brief description, it could also be death wobble induced by worn-out front end parts. All of those parts are easy to check.

Before you spend money on balance, alignment, etc., figure out what caused it. You can SEE if a wheel threw a weight - there will be a mark where the weight used to be. Ditto for DS. A belt sep shows by a bulge in the sidewall of a tire. You won't mistake it for something else - it will be a bulge that should not be there and none of the other tires will have it.