Hey all,
This problem happened before I put my lift on, but is now a bit worse. In 4 wheel drive, I can turn right with no problems. When I turn left, the front end makes a very loud grinding noise and the steering wheel seems to want to clunk back, forcing my hands to face it straight. Could this be bad wheel u-joints or something else? Thank ya.

 

99% certain it's the u joints

 

What is the 1% leaning towards?

 

What TC do you have? Still about 70% certain in the 99% group, though

 

NP231, command-trac

 

T case issues. Not likely (1%)

 

definitely sounds like the u-joints in your front axle to me. Mine are starting to go and I can hear a grinding/scraping which is more pronounced in 4wd, and when I turn tight in 4wd on solid ground the steering definitely jerks the wheel back & forth. None of this happened before I started hearing the scraping in the u-joints, and I've replaced everything else in my front axle except the gears. Now I wish I'd done the U-joints while I had it all apart... but they were good-to-go back in October!

Stu-offroad.com has my favorite write up for D30 U-joint replacement. Awesome trick for removing the unit bearing hubs which tend to rust in there. I love my u-joint press too. Best $43 I've spent on the Jeep yet, except of course for the can of hot rod green paint. hehe

 

Well thanks for all the help. I'm also among the 99% as far as the issue goes. It failed on my way to work and I couldn't drive it back. Hopefully a change works the wonders I think it will.

 

It didn't destroy anything else in the process did it?

 

I don't believe so. At least I hope not. I dropped it at a mechanic because I don't have the time to deal with it myself, but for having a bad ujoint the axle seemed to be pretty tight and everything looked in place. I do think it was a big part of the death wobble I've been getting though.

 

this sounds similar to whats happening to mine, so keep us updated on what the cause of the problem is

 

Well the ujoint was fine, the clunking and knocking wasn't related to it at all. Apparently my death wobble knocked my lugs loose so my left front wheel was loose. Still need to fix this death wobble situation. I ordered a rough country stabilizer, hopefully it helps.