hi all I'm new to the forum and am hoping for a little help with a 99 cherokee I just bought. When making full lock turns at slow speeds while in 2wd I get a pretty severe front wheel hop...if I were to be in a parking lot and just hold a full lock turn as I drive in a circle it will not be consistent but it will happen probably twice for every full circle that I complete, also happens when I reverse the turn and go the other way too.
I've checked ball joints..ok..
jacked up front and positioned wheels at full lock both ways to watch u joints for binding..seems ok too
I read a few posts here and got the feeling that this may be normal?
I've owned a couple other cherokees that I don't recall this happening at all or if it did it was much less drastic....this one feels as if the tire is lop-sided...any help would be great ..Thx!

 

Sounds like it's in 4wd or a ujoint to me. I dunno though lol

 

Yeah, that's pretty normal in 4WD. Else a u-joint is failing.

 

How did you check u joints. Crawl under her tomorrow and physically grab the u joint and wiggle it up an down. See if there is play. Also jack the jeep up and push and pull on the tire. Make sure you have no play. If it was in 4wd you would know. 4wd you just don't get hop you get bind

 

It very well could be bad front u-joints, but check your upper control arm bolts and torque to spec. 55ft lbs for axle end and 66ft lbs at frame end. Loose control arm bolts caused my similar symptoms.

 

My 99 did the exact same thing, replaced both axle shaft u joints and all is well!

 

My 2000 does th same thing, both front axle u joints have been replaced, it needs an alignment, so I figured that might be the cause of it

 

Even if the U-joints are OK, you may get some tire scrubbing in 2WD making slow full lock turns on a hard, dry surface...the front axle U-joints are not constant velocity.

 

thx guys that info all gives me a good start

 

Any update to this?
I recently got a 99 xj and replaced both front wheel hub assy and axle U joints the other day and noticed last night that mine has this same behavior.
I was afraid it may be ball joints, my xj has 172,xxx on it and I know all the stock bushings in the front are prob smoked, but didn't think they'd cause this behavior.

...

 

It could be that your new XJ has an auto locker or a LSD in the rear axle, or maybe your steering stops are not set correctly and are allowing the axle shaft ears to hit.
Both of these could give the effect of wheel hop.