I was driving down the highway the other day and my steering wheel starting shaking like crazy almost sending me in the ditch. I kept it under control and pulled over, got out checked it over didnt see any loose parts and no flat tire. So i started going again and made it home fine. Driving again and did it again, noticed after I slowed to under 40 mph it stoppped shaking. I also noticed that when I hit a bump under 45 it makes a clunk and any faster is when it starts to shake. My front tires are worn bald on the outside while the rest of the tire is fine. Does anyone have any ideas what is causing this or has had this happen? Is this my balljoints? Track bar bushings? Thanks alot in advance guys.

 

The my friend is what every one calls death wobble due to the trac bar being loose or broken and or needing shims back behind the lower control arm's . Im no pro but I have been reading alot of diff forums and this is what I have found good luck !

 

grands don't have shims, they use cam bolts on the lca.

but yes, do check your trac bar bushings. both frame end/mounting bolts too, and axle end.

 

Thanks alot. Will teh trac bar bushings cause my outer tire to wear?

 

If your profile is correct and your Jeep is stock, then that narrows the cause down alot. I've had experience with the death wobble and my problem on my cherokee turned about to be control arms that were too short.

However, in your case, I would suspect a worn trac bar bushing, or a loose trackbar. Check both the axle and frame end of the trac bar and make sure they are secure. Another very likely cause is that your front end is (seriously) out of alignment. Your tires wearing on the outside are a sure sign of this. Take it to a shop that does alignment jobs, and have teh align the front end. I feel like this will solve your problem.

 

Thanks alot, Im brining it to the shop I guess. I dint want to but I may as well and then they can tell me exactly what is wrong with it. Ill be checking it over first. I figured it was the alignment had a factor witht the tire wear but I dont think its to far out of wack cause it goes pretty straight down the road without any pull except when it starts to shake abvouisly.

Thanks again,
Cody

 

First of all your welcome, second there are several factors that deal with alignment. Caster, Camber, and toe are all important. If you want to learn what each is, you can google a diagram that can explain it better than I can. In short, toe is generally what causes pull and tire wear, but a poor camber angle can also cause improper tire wear. My guess is that your toe is set ok, but your caster and camber angles are out of wack. When I had the death wobble with my cherokee, it turned out to be due to the caster angle. Also I had no pull when I had the death wobble plague.

On a final bit of friendly advice, before you take it to a shop and ask them to "look for a problem" just get a complete front end alignment first. Some (not all mind you) shops will just look for a problem until they find one, which may or may not fix YOUR problem. Anyway, see if an alignment job fixes it first, its much cheaper than having the shop "find" the problem. Let me know how this turns out, good luck and I hope this has been helpful.

 

and check the tierod ends. mine were shot and they gave me sick death wobbles. good luck.
and p.s. if you search death wobbles you will find tooooooons of stuff on it

 

Thanks again, I know what camber, caster and toe are. I am very familiar witht the settings. ( I came from the BMW scene) But anyway on my ZJ what effects the camber/ caster settings? I read that balljoints can give you wrong amount of camber and they make offset balljoints to make up for that. Is this true for ZJ's?

Thanks again

 

You may also have a front tire out of balance. I had the same problem. The steering wheel and front end were shaking and shuddering after hitting a bump at 40mph+. I was sure something was going to come apart for all the bouncing. It was a front tire out of balance because I had lost a wheel weight during the blizzards. However, all of the other information is good, not dismissing it. Just don't forget to check the front tire balance.

 

Ok so I think I found the problem or at least a part of it, I was out looking over the ZJ and I can move the complete tie rod setup with one had no problem. It is very loose, seems to me that the joints on the tie rod assembly are shot. I assume this is the problem. The trac bar seems tight. LMK know your input on this.

Thanks

 

If i'm not mistaken, on a grand you have to adjust the cam bolts on the lower control arms to alter the caster and camber, I'm not positive of this though because the front end of a cherokee and a grand cherokee are slightly different in this aspect. Also, sorry if I insulted you talkin about the toe caster and camber and all that

 

The cams on the LCA adjust caster only. You can get ball joints to adjust camber. I have NEVER seen camber out on one unless somethings bent, to me the adjustable ball joints are a band aid.

You probably can move the tierod by hand by rotating it a little, fairly common. The proper way to check is jack each front wheel off the ground, try to shake tire side to side and up and down, use a prybar or something to pry up underneath the tire. Trust me, you will know what excessive play is. I have seen lca bushings go bad in under 100k miles to, oil leaking onto them will accelerate wear even quicker.

 

Well to me the movementof the tierod is very excessive. Im going to go to a friends and see if his tierod moves as much as mine does and ill report back.

Thanks again