What is wrong with my jeep !? still having issues after alignment and new ball joints

JeepNfish20

JeepNfish20

New member
I have a 2 door Jk on a 2.5 inch suspension lift and 35 inch mud terrains running no steering stabilizer at the moment. I hit a pot hole a few weeks ago and my jeep started driving like crap. I got all the ball joints replaced with the Synergy heavy duty ball joints and got an alignment done. My jeep is still driving like crap! No death wobble but a lot of wandering and a lot of bump steer, I also get some bad body roll and can always feel the steering wheel going back and forth making it hard to drive straight, even on smooth roads it will wander and go side to side. Also at slow speeds hitting small bumps it will throw me side to side both with the steering wheel and the body roll. I was at 2 off road shops today and got 2 different oppinions. The first shop took a look underneath while I turned the steering wheel and all he told me was my tie rod and drag link had movement in them when turning the wheel. He told me to get a new Synergy tie rod and drag link and also a Fox IFP steering stabilizer. The second shop (which just looked at my jeep a few weeks ago after I hit the pot hole) told me that the shop would have never even done the alignment in the first place if the tie rod was bad because it wouldn't get in spec. I took a look myself earlier and everything seemed to be tight and I also checked the shock on the side I hit and that was fine so I think I can rule out the shocks being bad. So I have no clue what to do now and I do not want to keep spending money on things I do not need. Thanks for the help everyone
 
aermotor

aermotor

Member
Steering box shot and sloppy? Control arm bolt loose or missing? Sway bar links?

Where do you live?
 
W

Wheatbackdigger

New member
JeepNfish20 said:
I have a 2 door Jk on a 2.5 inch suspension lift and 35 inch mud terrains running no steering stabilizer at the moment. I hit a pot hole a few weeks ago and my jeep started driving like crap. I got all the ball joints replaced with the Synergy heavy duty ball joints and got an alignment done. My jeep is still driving like crap! No death wobble but a lot of wandering and a lot of bump steer, I also get some bad body roll and can always feel the steering wheel going back and forth making it hard to drive straight, even on smooth roads it will wander and go side to side. Also at slow speeds hitting small bumps it will throw me side to side both with the steering wheel and the body roll. I was at 2 off road shops today and got 2 different oppinions. The first shop took a look underneath while I turned the steering wheel and all he told me was my tie rod and drag link had movement in them when turning the wheel. He told me to get a new Synergy tie rod and drag link and also a Fox IFP steering stabilizer. The second shop (which just looked at my jeep a few weeks ago after I hit the pot hole) told me that the shop would have never even done the alignment in the first place if the tie rod was bad because it wouldn't get in spec. I took a look myself earlier and everything seemed to be tight and I also checked the shock on the side I hit and that was fine so I think I can rule out the shocks being bad. So I have no clue what to do now and I do not want to keep spending money on things I do not need. Thanks for the help everyone
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What's your caster? Do you have adjustable front LCAs? Sounds like you need to bump your caster up a bit


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J

JKDream

Guest
JeepNfish20 said:
I have no clue what the caster is at and I dont have adjustables

Click to expand...

This is likely the root cause of your issue.
What brand is your lift? Some lifts net a lot more than advertised, and if so your caster is too low.
You can get a rough estimate with a level app on your phone.

Too little caster makes the Jeep feel like its driving on its tip toes, and it'll wander when driven on the highway.
 
love2wheel

love2wheel

New member
Funny, mine kind of started this too, but only after new ball joints went in. I researched it. Sait ball joints are tight and will break in. I check my castor and it's good. I has gotten slightly better over the last couple hundred miles. New 35s on mine as well. The issue didn't exist until ball joints went in.

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JeepNfish20

JeepNfish20

New member
Well im partially under the category as bought not built haha it had the lift on it when i got it and it was sprayed with a lot of under carriage spray. The dealer didnt have too much info on My jeep not only feels bad on highways but even at just slow speeds 15-25 going around town it feels completely terrible
JKDream said:
This is likely the root cause of your issue.
What brand is your lift? Some lifts net a lot more than advertised, and if so your caster is too low.
You can get a rough estimate with a level app on your phone.

Too little caster makes the Jeep feel like its driving on its tip toes, and it'll wander when driven on the highway.
Click to expand...
 
J

JKDream

Guest
JeepNfish20 said:
Well im partially under the category as bought not built haha it had the lift on it when i got it and it was sprayed with a lot of under carriage spray. The dealer didnt have too much info on My jeep not only feels bad on highways but even at just slow speeds 15-25 going around town it feels completely terrible
Click to expand...

The bumpsteer is likely related from the lift.
You should measure your lift to determine what height you actually gained.
Also, do you have any photos of the front end?
I would like to see if you have any track bar drop brackets, dropped pitman arms etc.
 
JeepNfish20

JeepNfish20

New member
I do not have any good pics from underneath at the moment but I can do that tomorrow. I do have a dropped pitman arm and JKS adjustable track bars
JKDream said:
The bumpsteer is likely related from the lift.
You should measure your lift to determine what height you actually gained.
Also, do you have any photos of the front end?
I would like to see if you have any track bar drop brackets, dropped pitman arms etc.
Click to expand...
 
cozdude

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
Make sure you check ALL torque specs on the track bars and such.

If you have a rubicon make sure the sway bar reconnected and didn't die on you. If it's not connected in general that would cause all the body roll. Check your rear links as well.

For the tie rod it will roll forward and back but it should not be able to move from side to side or up and down at the joint. If there is any perceivable movement when you put your hands on it and have someone steer the wheel then the ends are bad. Same goes for drag link ends.

Also as mentioned check caster. Depending on how much lift you got out of your 2.5" kit on your 2 door you could be well over 3" like I was. This means your caster is way out of spec. You should check it with a dial indicator. If it's not at or slightly greater than 4.2* of caster you will need Front lower control arms. They fixed my wandering issues.
 
JeepNfish20

JeepNfish20

New member
The guy at the off road shop I was at today looked at it while I turned the wheel back and forth and he said about being movement in em. When I check with my hands they seem pretty solid, they just have the normal roll you were saying about. I had my alignment done a few days ago and I was told by another off road shop owner that they would have never done an alignment if my tie rod was messed up.
cozdude said:
Make sure you check ALL torque specs on the track bars and such.

If you have a rubicon make sure the sway bar reconnected and didn't die on you. If it's not connected in general that would cause all the body roll. Check your rear links as well.

For the tie rod it will roll forward and back but it should not be able to move from side to side or up and down at the joint. If there is any perceivable movement when you put your hands on it and have someone steer the wheel then the ends are bad. Same goes for drag link ends.

Also as mentioned check caster. Depending on how much lift you got out of your 2.5" kit on your 2 door you could be well over 3" like I was. This means your caster is way out of spec. You should check it with a dial indicator. If it's not at or slightly greater than 4.2* of caster you will need Front lower control arms. They fixed my wandering issues.
Click to expand...
 
cozdude

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
JeepNfish20 said:
The guy at the off road shop I was at today looked at it while I turned the wheel back and forth and he said about being movement in em. When I check with my hands they seem pretty solid, they just have the normal roll you were saying about. I had my alignment done a few days ago and I was told by another off road shop owner that they would have never done an alignment if my tie rod was messed up.
Click to expand...

You can still do an alignment even with the end being messed up. Trust me, in school I have done many alignments on my own Jeep and others vehicles with sloppy tie rod ends. It doesn't effect how you align the vehicle. Now if the shop is good then they should have checked all of the ends before they even done the alignment but I can guarantee you that most people don't. That's the sucky part about flat rate
 
love2wheel

love2wheel

New member
This is interesting. I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but I did not have this wandering feeling until after the ball joints were replaced. The old ones were complete trash. Would the slop from the worn joints hide the wandering? Or would it just be from them being new? I checked castor with the phone at the upper joint. Passenger side reads 6° towards the rear. With 2° on the ground. Driver reads 1.5° in opposite direction. Placed on holes next to differential is 88.5°. It seems to have improved after putting some miles on the jeep. No issue after lift went on in September. No issue after 35s went on. Only after bjs went in. No slop in end links or drag link end. Not sure how accurate that app is btw.

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JeepNfish20

JeepNfish20

New member
Also what are your thoughts on needing a fox ifp steering stabilzer? The one shop told me thats a thing I should buy
cozdude said:
You can still do an alignment even with the end being messed up. Trust me, in school I have done many alignments on my own Jeep and others vehicles with sloppy tie rod ends. It doesn't effect how you align the vehicle. Now if the shop is good then they should have checked all of the ends before they even done the alignment but I can guarantee you that most people don't. That's the sucky part about flat rate
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WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
Don't buy the stabilizer. If your front end is set up properly, it's not even needed. Save your stock one. You need to check your caster. You need to make sure your drag link and track bar are parallel. You need to have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while you look for play in track bar ends, tie rod ends, and drag link ends. This thread will help: http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?3861-Basic-Do-it-Yourself-Jeep-JK-Wrangler-Front-End-Alignment

One more thing to add, is that over the years, I've seen a several wandering and sticky steering issues after new ball joints were installed. Some go away, some don't. Mostly I've seen it on bigger trucks. Not saying that it's normal, just saying I have seen it happen.
 
cozdude

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
JeepNfish20 said:
Also what are your thoughts on needing a fox ifp steering stabilzer? The one shop told me thats a thing I should buy
Click to expand...

My thoughts on the fox ss is that you go back and read my original response to you again and walk away from that shop.
 
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