Interesting point. If balance beads do indeed work neatly, gumed up with fix a flat I'd think not! Or just fix a flat or some other garbage in there.

Short of breaking it down, maybe remove the tire from the balancer, bounce it around a bit then put it back on and see it it's still balanced....or just look.

 

The track bar is new as well. Forgot to mention that. I might take the front springs off the 2wd 97 we are going to scrap out and put them on there because they damn sure didn't bounce. I haven't used fix a flat or any of that junk. Only on lawn mowers. But since these are second hand wheels and tires, I might want to pop them off and have a look see.

 

I have found wheels/tires to be issues a majorty of the time when I have had this issue in the past on cars and trucks. Not my XJ but in general a very real problem at times.

 

Rotated the tires in the X pattern today before a 120 mile trip. The first few miles were glass smooth. Then the bounce came back in the driver's side. It went away again and came back. But of all the trips I have made here, this one was the least bouncy. It would occasionally come back. But it was smooth more often than not. Would abnormal amounts of caster on just one side possibly be a cause? The drivers side does seem to be more forward in the wheel well than the passenger side.

 

Castor is basically the angle of the knuckles on the axle. The only way I know that one side could be more forward than the other is if one side of your control arms are shot.

The track bar holds the axle left to right.
The control arms hold the axle front to back.
The relationship between the top and bottom control arms sets the castor angle. This is why shims are used on the LCA brackets to set castor.

 

My bet is it's the tires. You could have allot pretty wonky, but with a shade of toe-in and balanced tires, it should not vibrate. (on the highway). Might wear or steer funny with stuff out, but not vibrate at specific speeds.

Tires have fiber that can fail/rip to make a "bubble". A good tire shop should catch that. I'm wondering if the tire acted up when it got warm. ...Anyway with no experience with lifts or oversize tires, there's my .02!

 

Try a different set or find a shop that does road force balancing.

 

If there is any liquid in any of the tires due to a previous owner's actions, it or they will never balance.

They are going to have to be dismounted to make sure.

 

I think I may have found the source of the issue here. The front axle housing was likely in an accident as it was 4th hand by the time I got it. As you can see from The early picture where it has the generals on it, the axle was still centered in the wheel well. In the later picture with the rubicons, the wheel is thrust forward. I recently put a known good gearbox from a jeep we parted and it's tighter than ever before with the steering yet the shimmy and bounce remained. Got a god deal on the rubicona and tires so those old wheels were eliminated and yet it remains. Checked the ball joints while I was in there for the.lift and.they are super tight. I plan on changing both axles again from a jeep I'm going to part with low miles on it so I'm going to put a bandaid on it and elongate the hole on the lower control arm pad to rotate it backwards just a little.

 

^^^ This or a broken belt!

 

It's difficult to tell if the 17s are "thrust forward", because your pictures are not straight on (perpendicular) to the fender well.

I guess I don't see how a slightly misaligned axle, if it actually is, can cause the shake you are talking about. A vehicle can dogwalk going down the road, yet it doesn't vibrate.

A vibration is going to be caused by something that rotates. Since you say that even after you changed tires and wheels it persists, it is going to be in something else in the drive line that rotates.

This is assuming the 17s are accurately balanced, and that the tires and wheels are round. You might have traded one set of warped tires/wheels for another. I don't see a weight on the front side of the wheel in the second picture, but not all wheel/tire combos need a weight there. But most do.

 

These are 16" moabs. The tires are brand new by me. They balanced the wheels with weights on the back side lip and stick on weights close to the lip on the inside. Here are some shots that should better illustrate. Also, if you measure from the tire to the body, the driver side is 1/4" further from the body than the passenger side. Hopefully you can tell the drivers from the passenger as I can't remember what picture is which.

 

Has your Jeep ever been wrecked?

The only way to tell for sure is to have the alignment checked with sensors on all four wheels. This needs to be done a a shop that has a computerized alignment machine.

The need to look at the thrust line to see if the front and rear axles are square with each other.

Looking at the fenders to judge axle alignment won't work very well because the fenders are adjustable/moveable in relation to the unibody.

I still don't think any of this is a vibration source.

Your front bumper is back farther on the left than the right side. It doesn't line up with the fenders on either side. But the fender-to-door gap is wider on the left than the right, which could mean the left fender is farther forward that the right. If that is the case, then the bumper is actually nearly square to the body.

 

As far as I can tell it has never been wrecked in the slightest and I've done some serious time under it. Will be getting a full on alignment after I get the lower mile axles swapped on for sure. Just trying to find a bandaid and weed out the problems ahead of time to save my new tires.

 

Well I guess we'll wait to see what happens after the axles and alignment.