by921

My jeep has recently developed a wobble at 55 and only 55. Faster or slower than that speed it drives normal. You can really tell when you are on the brakes and go through that speed. It has within the last 2 years and under 5,000 miles a new steering box, track bar (iro), upper and lower control arms (iro fixed), coil (iro 4 inch and 1.75 inch spacer), shocks (rubicon express), steering (jcr 1ton over the knuckle), and new tires and wheels within the last 2,000 miles. I torqued all the bolt down yesterday and it made no difference. All the bushings look good. What would be the next iteams to check; wheel bearings, ball joints, tie rod ends... It has not done this before and I do not believe it is death wobble as it doesn't shake that bad but it is very noticeable.

by921

I just took my jeep to 4 wheel parts and they checked the wheel bearings, tie rods, and ball joints. They think it is the tire balance. So today I am going to swap them front to rear. If that doesn't do it i may pull the front drive shaft.

LACK

Tire balance, what condition are the tires in? Any cupping or abnormal wear. Swapping tires front to rear may not do you any good if the rear tires are out of balance.

Have all 4 balanced and rotated then see where youre at.

by921

tires have 2500 miles or so on them. I am not ruling out tire balance yet though. I swap them front to back and it made no difference and all the tires are at the same pressure

by921

just found out discount tire does wheel balance for 10$ a piece so will be doing that tomorrow if that doesn't work I will pull the front shaft

LACK

at 2500 miles i'd be taking them back where you got them mounted/balanced and see what they have to say.

by921

i would but I just moved to Florida and I used to live in Virginia

moparado

Could be a lot of things but here's how i solved the same problem on my xj but only at 53 mph.
Turned out to be the steering box shaft was worn along with the steering box too. Happened at around 280k miles

Check for shaft, pitman arm and steering box play. If your lucky, you might be able to adjust away any slop in the new steering box if that's the root cause. Its possible it wasn't adjusted correctly at the factory.
I checked for all this by NOT jacking up the front end. Left the tires on the ground and had someone turn the steering wheel while listening for clicks and any visual slop movement. Bingo! Clicking at the steering box area.

In my case balancing the tires seemed to cure the problem but only for a few hundred miles. Slowly but surely the 53mph vibrations started again.

I think worn steering parts coupled with even a slight tire mis-balance can allow the the steering system to resonate at its natural frequency. That would be at 53mph in my case.
Good luck, this was an annoying issue for me.

by921

I pulled the front driveshaft and it seems a little better. It doesn't have the shake when you are on the brakes going through 55 but a little at cruising. I am going to drive around for a few days with out the front shaft in and see how it goes

5-Speed

I am having the same issue as you. Was fine before, then I got new wheels and tires. Not sure exactly when mine does it since my speedo is not currently hooked up, but I would say in the 50-55 mph area. I have not gone over that speed yet so I dont know if it will smooth out or not. Was too worried about DW popping up. Now that my new track bar is in, I will go testing again.

Keep us posted on your findings!

by921

Drive shaft didn't fix it. I drove it more and it may be worse, idk. Getting balanced tom.

LACK

Had an alignment recently?

by921

It had an alignment 3-4000 miles a go. I don think that that is it but may be worth a try.

LACK

Just trying to rule out common issues. Id start with tire balance and go from there.

by921

I know.. I it driving me nuts. I just started using it as a daily driver and didn't fully work out all the bugs.