munyanb

Im having death wobble issues, changed the obvious bad tie rod ends, it got worse, im changing ball joints now and cant get the old ones out, and the new ones , the bottom one I think has a groove and snap ring, while the existing one was flush, At any rate I either ruined or discovered a bad wheel bearing and can now see and feel slop in ball joints, I looked before but couldn't couldn't see any play. But velocity times mass equals far more pressure than having someone turn the steering wheel while sitting still. One of the ball joints came apart upon removing the hub. Someone said track bar but im pretty sure that isn't it. That lets the entire axle move and not causing wheels to fight against one another, but it is really violent , I tagged onto another post having very similar issues if not the same, no one responded and I don't know how old it is, but now my main concern is a vehicle stranded in driveway beyond the point of no return , I cant move it to a shop now. I started drilling a lower to try to eat it out from the center without damaging what it fits into, but I wanted to get someone with more experience to find out what they use, my hammer just isn't working, lol

firebane

No snap rings... Upper pressed up and out. Bottom presses down. You need to remove the upper before the lower.

Don't use too much force or you could bend or warp the C and then you'll have even worse issues. Heat is your friend.

Start pressing out the ball joints and when it gets stuck use some heat and whack the ball joint or gently whack the nut end of the press.

tinytrax78

you need a ball joint press go buy or rent one

munyanb

Thanks, I knew which direction to press them, but like I said a hammer just wasn't doing much, and like you said I didn't want to bens that "C". So im off to get a Ball point press somewhere. As far as the rest of it, nothing came apart normal, even the little kotter pins were frozen so bad I broke the end off of my needle nosed pliers trying to get them out, finally just got a big cheater bar and sheared em off. The wheel bearings took two days to get off, soaking in PB blaster several times and lots of hammering and chiseling. I wonder what a shop would charge and how they would deal with all the rust welded stuff to not take longer than its supposed to? I guess having a real shop with tooling goes a long way. So after these are out im wondering if I can get the new ones in and will the same press work for that?

munyanb

I went to oriellys and rented a ball joint press , but it will not fit within the "C" so I cant use it, it would work for putting them back in, but not getting out, where have you guys gotten your ball joint presses at?

munyanb

I figured out a way to get it to work , just had to smoke a bowl and go look again, but this thing isn't budging yet I didn't want to use heat, but it looks like ill have to, should I cool it with water if I use heat? im not sure exactly what kind of steel this "'c" is , or if heat would weaken it or cooling it would make it brittle.

munyanb

Finally just when I thought the tool would shatter the ball joints started popping loose, little by little, using a hammer each time, crank it as tight as doubled wrenches can, and bang with hammer, this is tedious and time consumers, how much does a shop charge for these?

firebane

Yup some get seized pretty good.

munyanb

It doesn't help that it is from up north and someone I had trusted to wash it after a long freeze and snow with tons of salt everywhere didn't wash it at all. Someone on another post about death wobble said they had to replace control arms, I sure hope I don't, ive been wondering, but hoping if I ignore that it wont be that, lol. Some of my dumber friends would say just sell it and buy something else, but them same friends always seem to be complaining about losing their asses on vehicles, lol. Then idiots want to bad mouth jeep for it, but id say after 201k and this is the first real maintenance, its a testament to jeep

munyanb

So I have all four ball joints replaced, I hadn't been able to work on it straight through, got lots of things going on, but as I was doing this I noticed my axle dust seals were garbage, I ruined or discovered one of the rust welded on wheel bearings, and saw that both backing plates/dust shields for brakes were disintegrated, so I ordered new wheel bearings, new dust shields, new axle tube dust seals, also I had already ordered a set of Monroe gas matic shocks all around. So im waiting on the dust seals and backing plates, and decided to go on and change out the shocks. As I was looking at the rear I think I found a major contributor to my death wobble situation, I have a missing bolt on the passenger side rear upper control arm at the axle bushing, im trying to picture the motion it would allow and wonder if that was the biggest part of the problem?

97grand4.0

"I hadn't been able to work on it straight through", "just had to smoke a bowl and go look again, '
There's the biggest part of the problem.

munyanb

It seems to be working out fine, after trying to find a good axle tube seal I found out from Omix that there isn't one for this vehicle, not really one that seals the tube good. Id been talking about how difficult it was hoping I didn't hear that others had ruined the entire axle because of ball joints. In the end it all needed replaced, but im still sticking with the missing upper rear passenger side control arm as being the biggest problem and I can see where its beat some stuff up, to bad it ruined my 1 3/4 " lift block on that side as well, I only used them because they came with another vehicle for free, normally on a ZJ I would never buy a lift block. I haven't been able to work on it straight through because I have so many other things going on that take priority over the jeep, and yes a major part of the problem is not being able to relax while doing this, normally I like working on mechanical stuff, just to much going on all at once with moving and house repairs on a place I am buying. So finally all the parts came in and im cleaning out the axle tubes before putting it back together and when I get a good chance or near my air compressor or even my pressure washer ill take the diff cover off and do it right, check bearings and seals and blow or spray out that axle tube, I started this in my driveway thinking it would go much easier and with less new parts than it did.

firebane

Jeeps didn't come with tube seals. They came with inner axle seals and that is it. The plastic cover on the front is just that.. a plastic cover.

If you want a tube seal look at 10 factory and others who make what your looking for.

munyanb

I figured that out after talking to omix its weird but I guess it makes sense, Id like to have them sealed but not sure its really necessary if your inners are good, of course mine are pretty gunked up , like most probably are. if they get used

munyanb

I finished putting it back together, took it on a low speed back road test drive, it feels much better now , no wobble at low speeds now when I hit the big bumps, nice and tight feeling, id recommend everyone re do the old components on any older vehicle, it feels new again, im sure I have some slack in my control arms still since they are so old and very much used. Im a little scared about a highway speed test after how bad the wobble was last time I drove it, but im sure itll be fixed.