Cherokee XJ Front End Vibration (Not Death Wobble)

[tardis454]

Not death wobble, more like a lot of vibration through the steering wheel. It happens between 55-70, comes, goes, stays for the most part. You can feel/hear the vibration at lower speeds but it doesn't resonate through the steering wheel until it hits freeway speeds. It's controllable sometimes by accelerating, deceleration, braking. It's a stock suspension, 235/15 tires, daily driver Jeep..

Over the years I've replaced:

Bilsteins all 4 corners
Steering Damper/Shock
Stabilizer Links
Track Bar Bolt (it broke)
Hub Bearings
Front Axle U-Joints
Pads/Rotors (could use rotors, not warped though)
Rebalanced, rotated tires yesterday (took some of it away)

Jeep still has the original:

Track Bar
Control Arms
Drag Link/Tie Rods
Ball Joints

I asked fellow Jeeper's about it, I'm hearing ball joints, track bar, front driveshaft U-joint's, 'sprung' front axle shaft yokes binding the u joints, warped rotors/stuck calipers (checked both, they're ok).

Just wondering if I'm missing something, any ideas fellow Bangshifters?

[BOSSMAN]

I've owned XJ Jeep's for the past 15 years. It most likely is the track bar. Only way to tell is get somebody to turn the wheel lock to lock and put your hand on the ball joint end of the track bar, if it moves you know what to do from there!

[SuperBuickGuy]

out of balance tire(s), separated tread, and/or bent wheel

[Scott Liggett]

out of balance tire(s), separated tread, and/or bent wheel

Bigger tires are harder to balance. Much bigger rotational mass. Also, if they need a lot of weight to balance a whee/tire; then I would break the bead of the tire and remount it 180* from where it was. Normally, this reduces the amount of weight needed to balance the tire significantly.

[tardis454]

out of balance tire(s), separated tread, and/or bent wheel

Ruled that out Thursday when I rotated & rebalanced the tires.
Aluminum rims, not bent, tires have 10-15k on them 80+% thread left.

I'm thinkin track bar like BOSSMAN said, that's a wear item, & mine's still original...
Got one new in the box, gonna swap that first & report back.

[BlueCuda340]

U joints in the front axle would be where I went first.

[BOSSMAN]

U joints in the front axle would be where I went first.

Another sign of that would be a clunking sound when coming to a stop. Been there as well.

[SpiderGearsMan]

road force balance the tires
What year cherokee ?

[JOES66FURY]

i've owned xj jeep's for the past 15 years. It most likely is the track bar. Only way to tell is get somebody to turn the wheel lock to lock and put your hand on the ball joint end of the track bar, if it moves you know what to do from there!

this^^

[Loren]

For death-wobble I'd sure suspect that, but a vibration...that you can hear, then feel through the steering wheel...

If it's a 4x4 car w/o the pass-side axle disconnect, I'd suspect the front u-joint. If the driveshaft is down there spinning away and something gets out-of-balance, you'd hear it and also feel it in the steering as it's wanting to jiggle the axle side-to-side 3.55 times per tire revolution. Even if the u-joint looked good, I might take the whole driveshaft assy in for a balance check.

[tardis454]

Another sign of that would be a clunking sound when coming to a stop. Been there as well.

I replaced both front axle u-joints a couple years ago. Only thing I can think of is maybe the yokes are a little sprung, aka -->||<-- tweaked inward a bit. There's no noise & no binding while turning though.

If the axle yokes are sprung I have my buddy heat & cool them until the universals move without bind. We just did a set for my wife's Wrangler. The new u-joints were binding like a mofo, he heated/cooled them several times & now they move like butter.. I noticed it's usually the stub axle side of the assembly that binds, the shaft side is fine most of the time.

road force balance the tires
What year cherokee ?

It's a 99... The tires balanced out fine, the shop didn't use many wheel weights..

For death-wobble I'd sure suspect that, but a vibration...that you can hear, then feel through the steering wheel...

If it's a 4x4 car w/o the pass-side axle disconnect, I'd suspect the front u-joint. If the driveshaft is down there spinning away and something gets out-of-balance, you'd hear it and also feel it in the steering as it's wanting to jiggle the axle side-to-side 3.55 times per tire revolution. Even if the u-joint looked good, I might take the whole driveshaft assy in for a balance check.

Yep, there's no axle disco on this one. I have an extra set of front & rear driveshafts that need new u-joints. Worse comes to worse I can put new joints in the spare front shaft I have and swap it out.

I'm definitely gonna swap the track bar out seeing that the one in there is original.

[SpiderGearsMan]

back in the day , they were getting track bars left and right around 1990...I quit the AMC team in 1986

[BlueCuda340]

What I have seen with the front axle joints is they they get dry and freeze up. They don't have any slack in them they are just very very stiff, so any amount the wheel is turned at all they will transmit some vibration.

[tardis454]

I finally addressed the vibration issue on the XJ. I took the hubs off, checked the axle u-joints and steering components. The problem was with the hubs I installed 2yrs ago. There was 1/4" of slop on the drivers side hub, and 1/8" on the passengers side. The axle u-joints, ball joints, and steering parts are fine. It could use a trackbar, and I'll probably install one during the next oil change.



I put Timken hubs on and wow what a difference! It floats down the freeway at 60-65, no more vibration in the steering wheel. I still have some vibration though when I get on/off the gas. It's not terrible, doesn't shake the vehicle but it's a noticeable vibration. I'm thinking a bad drive shaft u-joint is causing it. Luckily I have spare drive shafts. I'll post back when I figure out which drive shaft is the culprit.

[BlueCuda340]

Grease the slip yoke in the front driveshaft very heavily. If its worn but not terrible the heavy greasing will make the vibration go away for little bit at least.