Troubleshooting steering wobble/shimmy

Tradarcher

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Creedmoor, NC
I have never had any problems with wobble with my 33" TSL radials and steel rims. I can run them up to 70 and drive with one hand. Been using them for 4 years.

I just put on some street tires today. 33" Sears Roadhandlers on Outlaw II rims. They are balanced with stick on weights only. They are perfectly stable and very smooth until I hit a dip in the road then the wobble starts. Doesn't seem to matter what speed above 30 or so. I even took them out on smooth highway up to 65 with no problems until I hit the offramp.

I rotated the two front tires with the same results.

There is equal pressure in them.

I carefully checked the toe and it's 1/8".

I took my steering stabilizer off and it appears to be in good shape. Can you check them by hand?

I don't know what my caster is but I think I remember making my adjustable LCA's an inch longer than stock when I installed my 4.5" shortarm.
I read this post about caster which seems to indicate that it is dependent on lift height and tire height. It was written by the engineer at nth degree who used to be a Jeep suspension engineer.

I measured the distance between the rear of my front tires and the front of my rear tires and there is a 3/8" difference. I don't know what this measurement is called but should it be equal? I guess to get it equal you have to lengthen the upper and lower control arms on the short side correct?

Any other suggestions?
 
Kevin Lawler said:
I carefully checked the toe and it's 1/8"......


I measured the distance between the rear of my front tires and the front of my rear tires and there is a 3/8" difference. I don't know what this measurement is called but should it be equal?
Click to expand...


how did you measure you're toe in to get 1/8" .......

... that 3/8" is your toe in If I'm reading your post right....
 
Apparently the term for it is setback but I measured it differently than is normally done. Setback:The amount by which one front wheel is further back from the front of the vehicle than the other. I measured between the front and rear wheels. Some suspensions have some setback built in but I'm sure the solid axle jeep is not suppose to have any.
I measured toe buy drawing a line around the center of the front tires. I then measured the distance between the line in front and then in the rear and the difference was 1/8" greater in the rear.
 
Kevin Lawler said:
Apparently the term for it is setback but I measured it differently than is normally done. Setback:The amount by which one front wheel is further back from the front of the vehicle than the other. I measured between the front and rear wheels. Some suspensions have some setback built in but I'm sure the solid axle jeep is not suppose to have any.
I measured toe buy drawing a line around the center of the front tires. I then measured the distance between the line in front and then in the rear and the difference was 1/8" greater in the rear.
Click to expand...


AH! I just went back and re-read your thread again.. for the umpteeneth time.. and the light finally came on as what you were measuring.... :p

I thought... never mind, it'd take longer to explain than it's worth. I'm on the same page as you now at any rate.

Do you still have your swampers? If so, put them back on and see if you can re-produce the DW. if not then you could have gotten a bad tire... Or rotate your front tires to the back and try it.

I have a set of BFGMuds onmy Grand, I went had them rotated and balanced for the first time, and couldn't get the damn thing over 40mph with out SERIOUS DW. rotated them back and it went away.... Go figure huh? replaced one of my control arm bushings, Upper Driver side on the axle end and put a new steering stabilzer on and and it went away.

What vehicle is this on?
 
It's a TJ. I could try moving the rear to the front. I just had the TSL's on Saturday and ran them up to 68 mph and no problems. Something about these new tires and wheels and my steering/suspension isn't jiving.
 
Sounds like a bad steering shock/damper to me. Damn near got killed by a customers ZJ that did that. Violent.
 
the steering stabalizer is only going to mask the issue. Check your control arm bushings, especially the one that I mentioned before. It goes bad from oil leaks and what ever else.

but I'd start witha a good inspection of control arm bushings and joints. then check the tires for balance and how true the the tires and rims are. I don't care if they are new and you just had them done, they could have been done wrong.
 
With adjustable arms all around I may have a thrust angle problem instead of a set back problem. I don't know if this will contribute to wobble or not. As for tire balance, if I they were out of balance wouldn't the problem be evident all the time?
 
Kevin Lawler said:
if I they were out of balance wouldn't the problem be evident all the time?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. They may need to move with enough force to affect the vehicle, and move things within their bushings, etc. BTDT....

Also, I'd look at the usual suspects, bushings, bearings, ball joints, and make sure everything is firm with no play. It sounds like it might be something alignment related, but you haven't mentioned if you eliminated the stupid shit first. (I call it stupid shit because I'll chase a problem all over, and then go back and recheck the wear stuff more thoroughly, and end up yelling, "That was stupid", because it was a simple issue.)

Yours is newer tho.

J
 
Since your TSL's ride fine, I'd look closely at the wheels & tires. are they round? Have the tire road force balanced to see if they're out of round.

Out of balance doesn't make itself known at all speeds, nor does out of round. We're troubleshooting a similar problem with Nicole's Celica. Being an 80's convertible, any out-of-roundness makes itself VERy well known. Tires are balanced perfectly, but still shakes...suspected out of round tire, which will be found by the road force machine.
 
Just a different angle at the same problem. I would be concerned with the new wheels/lugnuts. It's possible you old wheels were hub centric and the new ones are lug centric, if you are using the old or wrong style lugs, the wheels could smooth out at speed, but once a bump jars the wheel against the studs then everything gets kinky.
This may fall into that stupid area previously mentioned but I have experienced the identical situation described with this problem.
 
I had wobble from hell at one time. Al was fine till I wheeled schoolbus, and down helicopter and guardrail. When I hit pavement and could come up to speed heading back to camp, It was so bad I could only go about 20 mph. Come to find out bolts in sterring worked loose and once tight, no more wobble. So my suggestion is to look at everything connected to steering
Chip
 
The wheels are lug centric as were the wheels I took off. I have the correct lugnuts. Am considering getting them balanced. If that doesn't fix the problem then I am putting them on the auction block and going back to the TSLs.
 
check your front shocks we've seen the same prolbem on a f250 ford and turned out to be front shocks and alignment the tire on the right while driving after hitting a bump was bouncing rappitly off the ground causing a wobble inthe sterring
 
Hmmm.... hadn't thought of that. My shocks are many years old. Can you check shocks and steering stablizers by hand to see if they are ok or is it not distinguishable to the "naked hand".
 
if you've got the cheaper twin tube emulsion shocks, you can cycle them by hand and you'll notice spots where there is no damping many times... sometimes ya can't.
 
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