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I bought a 96 ZJ Orvis edition as a basket case project / winter beater vehicle with little disclosure from the seller. After getting the truck home and in a running condition I quickly learned (the first time I drove it!) that it had a death wobble something serious.
Found a stack of receipts in the vehicle for wheel bearings, shocks, motor mounts, trans mount, cv boots, and a few other things. Guess he tried to fix the wobble without any success, but thankfully replaced some parts which I didn't want to deal with. ;) My daily commute to and from work is city streets but most are in pretty poor condition so I've seen the wobble even at 45mph on Blue Parkway for example.
Friday afternoon I found some time to get under the truck and check it out. Jacked up the front end and placed the chassis on stands so the axle would hang free and checked wheel bearings. Both wheels seemed tight far as bearings and cv's go and the track bar looked brand new but holy $^@! was the steering blown out! This is actually the first vehicle I've ever owned without a rack and pinion steering system and my highschool autotech class was a LONG time ago, so forgive my ignorance on some component names...
http://youtu.be/nbM1i2x_-lw
That'd be what I believe they call the inner and outer tierod ends. Went down to the auto store and bought some quality aftermarket replacement parts and promptly installed them. Measured the center to center OAL and attempted to meet that close as possible when installing new parts. First impression on test drive was very positive, no slop in the steering at this point. Highway speeds I can let go of the wheel and it tracks straight, granted the wheel is about 30 degrees to the right, it still doesn't pull. Decided it'd be time to check out some of the known spots on I-635 and my results were very positive! At this point I figured the issue was resolved until I was coming back home on southbound I-635 the last bridge separator just north of Swartz road it happened again!!
The track bar looks brand new, and the drag link tierod end connected to the pitman arm looks brand new, the tierod endlink connected to the passenger knuckle also looks new.
Where should I go from here? I'm thinking about ordering some Energy Suspension poly bushings for the front control arms along with the track bar, then replace the steering shock but I don't want to spend a ton of money to replace this stuff if that won't help my wobble. Front tires are badly worn and I haven't had a chance to check the pressure in them yet. Really want to lift the truck 2 - 3" here pretty quickly and I Hoped to get this figured out before then so I can get new tires and an alignment all in one go.. Ideas? I know this topic has been beaten to death across the internet, but I haven't seen a 100% sure list of the exact parts that for sure cause the issue...
Found a stack of receipts in the vehicle for wheel bearings, shocks, motor mounts, trans mount, cv boots, and a few other things. Guess he tried to fix the wobble without any success, but thankfully replaced some parts which I didn't want to deal with. ;) My daily commute to and from work is city streets but most are in pretty poor condition so I've seen the wobble even at 45mph on Blue Parkway for example.
Friday afternoon I found some time to get under the truck and check it out. Jacked up the front end and placed the chassis on stands so the axle would hang free and checked wheel bearings. Both wheels seemed tight far as bearings and cv's go and the track bar looked brand new but holy $^@! was the steering blown out! This is actually the first vehicle I've ever owned without a rack and pinion steering system and my highschool autotech class was a LONG time ago, so forgive my ignorance on some component names...
http://youtu.be/nbM1i2x_-lw
That'd be what I believe they call the inner and outer tierod ends. Went down to the auto store and bought some quality aftermarket replacement parts and promptly installed them. Measured the center to center OAL and attempted to meet that close as possible when installing new parts. First impression on test drive was very positive, no slop in the steering at this point. Highway speeds I can let go of the wheel and it tracks straight, granted the wheel is about 30 degrees to the right, it still doesn't pull. Decided it'd be time to check out some of the known spots on I-635 and my results were very positive! At this point I figured the issue was resolved until I was coming back home on southbound I-635 the last bridge separator just north of Swartz road it happened again!!
The track bar looks brand new, and the drag link tierod end connected to the pitman arm looks brand new, the tierod endlink connected to the passenger knuckle also looks new.
Where should I go from here? I'm thinking about ordering some Energy Suspension poly bushings for the front control arms along with the track bar, then replace the steering shock but I don't want to spend a ton of money to replace this stuff if that won't help my wobble. Front tires are badly worn and I haven't had a chance to check the pressure in them yet. Really want to lift the truck 2 - 3" here pretty quickly and I Hoped to get this figured out before then so I can get new tires and an alignment all in one go.. Ideas? I know this topic has been beaten to death across the internet, but I haven't seen a 100% sure list of the exact parts that for sure cause the issue...
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