Hi guys. Been browsing around this site for awhile for some of the interesting things I could do to my XJ I just bought. REALLY didn't want to start off in the mechanical issues section but... eh...

I just brought the thing home from the kid I bought it off of. Pretty nice condition Jeep for $600. Problem is, I was about 95% of the way home (over an hour trip) and all of the sudden the front end wanted to randomly leap right off the vehicle going about 70mph on the highway. Shook worse than any other truck I've ever seen. I really thought I was going to die. Then about 10 seconds later it just stopped and was fine the rest of the way home.

My best guess is that the 4WD tried to engage for some reason. The kid mentioned something about avoiding bumps on highways, but he thought it was a tire alignment issue. The only way it would have been because of the tires would be if they were rectangular in shape. Anyone ever heard of something like this before?

Never ever had to deal with a 4wd front end. I'm used to working on front wheel drive cars. Any sort of direction would be great at this point. Tried searching for random 4wd engagement but to no avail.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Its a '95 4.0 Automatic, if that helps.

 

It's not the 4WD trying to engage. Something is loose in the suspension most likely. Trackbar is first place to look. I had a tread separation in a front tire that did the same thing. And I had a front tire with a bunch of Slime or Fixaflat in it and it acted pretty much the same way.

 

You had "Death Wobble".

Generally, it's the suspension shock thing in front (look and you'll see what I mean). In my experience, that fixes about 80% of tge time.

 

I just read up on that term. Thanks, that pretty much describes it as it seems to be a random event verses something that happens every time I reach a certain speed. I always thought wobble like that from suspension/alignment stuff was pretty much constant to certain speeds or conditions.

So basically I just need to keep it off the highway until I slowly rebuild the front end, grow some ***** & try again. That's cool, I work locally anyway and i don't mind dumping a bit of money into a Jeep that will be a decent ride in the long run, vs the Buick I basically built a new motor for and still turned out to be a P.O.S. grandma car. There's no lift kit or anything thrown in there so at least I don't have to figure out what other people have done to it before me.

Thanks for the replys. I'm sure I'll be back on here once I start digging.

 

Honestly, get a grease gun, hit the nipples and replace that front shock dampener and you'll most likely be good.

That's the fastest, cheapest and most likely resolution. If nothing else, you'll have ruled out the obvious causes first.

Check the rest, of course, but on a budget, that's what I'd do to start

 

Put it on stands and get a helper. Wiggle the wheels good and look for play. Could be anywhere from the box to the bearings. Most cars don't have a dampener. Slight tow-in keeps things from setting up a wobble. Tie-rod ends seem to take a beating.

Also its sooooo nice to have the wheels well balanced.

 

All XJ's, GC's and wranglers have the suspension shock dampener.

Cars (like escorts) do not.

 

jack front end and turn wheels look for slop or play if you can get a helper...can be anything in steering/suspension on front end

 

Both my jeeps needed new track bars when i got them, another jeep I looked at for my sister also needed one - the ball joint end (up under the steering box) was loose on all three. On mine, the tapered part was also loose in the bracket, I took the bracket and everything off to get it cleaned up and tight again. Real easy to check, just rock the steering wheel back and forth - if the front end moves sideways back and forth, that's the problem. (The track bar goes from the axle on the passenger side to the frame near the steering box, and is the only thing preventing the axle from moving side-to-side relative to the chassis.) If you're looking underneath while somebody else moves the steering wheel, there should be NO movement of the track bar relative to the chassis.