Desperate for a 4x4 shop near Loyalton, CA (or Truckee or Reno)

C

cosmokenney

Caught the Bug
I've posted here before about my death wobble. And after getting some good advice from members here I ended up replacing my Milestar tires with Falkens and replacing a Fox TS stabilizer (which I got through the early stabilizer TSB in ~2019) with a Rancho RS7MT stabilizer, all was well for the last 6 months. But recently after airing down to 10 PSI and doing a couple hours of snow wheeling the wobble came back with a vengeance as soon as I aired back up to the same PSI I was running before. When I say death wobble, I am talking about full on two white knuckled hands on the steering wheel and shaking so bad that I veered about half way into the oncoming lane before getting back under control. :eek:

At this point I think I've done just about everything "right" in terms of checking torque values on everything under there, new "heavy duty" ball joints, new metal cloak tie rod and drag link, all new adjustable UCA and LCA. I have reached the limit of my DIY capabilities and really think it is time to have a knowledgeable 4x4 shop take a look. I think it needs an alignment too. I just don't know enough about what to look for to be able to diagnose the cause of the problem.

But if I am being honest I may consider selling it and starting over with a newer model and keeping the mods to a minimum. Though I specifically have a lift and 37" tires for snow travel. And don't know what I will do without the added ground clearance and larger tires.

Can anyone recommend a shop near my home town of Loyalton CA -- I am 45 - 60 minutes to Reno. 40 or so to Truckee. And could even go down to the Auburn CA area.
 
I know you said you have new Metal Cloak tie rod and drag link but what track bar are you running? Are you sure that the bushing on it aren't toast?
 
if you knocked off balance weights while snow wheeling, it would add to your troubles.
also depends on how quick you noticed it, immediate after while the back of the wheels were snow packed, every time in my experience.
 
Disciple Off Road said:
Bummer to hear your frustrations with the Jeep. Based on your story, clearly something changed/got damaged on that trip to cause it again OR, were your wheels packed full of snow when driving back on pavement?
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Thanks for the reply, yes, snow was packed inside the wheels. In fact the powder coat wore off in a small band on the inside surface of the rear wheels. So I can't be sure the wheels (front and rear) still have all the balance weights.
 
wayoflife said:
I know you said you have new Metal Cloak tie rod and drag link but what track bar are you running? Are you sure that the bushing on it aren't toast?
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Thanks for the reply. I have a full Rancho suspension front and rear UCAs, LCAs, track bars and shocks/springs. The lift kit is about 1.5 years old and mostly driven on forest service dirt roads near my home. BTW, its a 2 door (not sure that matters). I am going to go through and check play on all the joints again after watching some videos. I adjusted the ball joints a couple days ago according to the teraflex instructions. Those are only about 6 months old so they should be in decent shape still.
 
jeeeep said:
if you knocked off balance weights while snow wheeling, it would add to your troubles.
also depends on how quick you noticed it, immediate after while the back of the wheels were snow packed, every time in my experience.
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I am leaning towards this being an issue. Just not sure I can tell if any came off. And its been too cold here to wash off the mud to look for adhesive residue. I am also going to rotate the tires and see if anything changes.
 
cosmokenney said:
Thanks for the reply. I have a full Rancho suspension front and rear UCAs, LCAs, track bars and shocks/springs. The lift kit is about 1.5 years old and mostly driven on forest service dirt roads near my home. BTW, its a 2 door (not sure that matters). I am going to go through and check play on all the joints again after watching some videos. I adjusted the ball joints a couple days ago according to the teraflex instructions. Those are only about 6 months old so they should be in decent shape still.
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Hang on, your ball joints are adjustable? In what way?

Regarding your Rancho track bar, that might be the culprit. I've run a couple of them in the past and one of them, the bushing went bad. Early on in the JL, there weren't too many track bars available but this one was and I got it to test things out being that it had clevite bushings on both ends.

It's cheap and it'll help you to figure out whether or not that is your problem.
 
wayoflife said:
Hang on, your ball joints are adjustable? In what way?

Regarding your Rancho track bar, that might be the culprit. I've run a couple of them in the past and one of them, the bushing went bad. Early on in the JL, there weren't too many track bars available but this one was and I got it to test things out being that it had clevite bushings on both ends.
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The teraflex ball joints have a tension adjustment for lack of a better term. You loosen a set screw and then tighten the adjustment nut...
Teraflex ball joint adjustment.png
 
wayoflife said:
Regarding your Rancho track bar, that might be the culprit. I've run a couple of them in the past and one of them, the bushing went bad. Early on in the JL, there weren't too many track bars available but this one was and I got it to test things out being that it had clevite bushings on both ends.
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What would be the symptoms of a bad bushing? Just a lot of up/down/side-to-side play? Can I test that with the track bar in place?
 
wayoflife said:
Yeah, okay. I'm not a big fan of TeraFlex products and this is another reason why. To me, things like ball joints should NOT be "adjustable".
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I just couldn't swing the cost of a Dynatrac/MetalCloak set at $600 or more. But it looks like now I am going to end up crying twice.
 
cosmokenney said:
What would be the symptoms of a bad bushing? Just a lot of up/down/side-to-side play? Can I test that with the track bar in place?
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Have someone turn your steering wheel a bit to the right and then the left without actually making the tires move. Watch the bushing at the axle and then the frame to see if there's any movement/shifting side to side. There shouldn't be and if there is, the bushing is most likely going bad or is bad. That said, installing a different track bar that you know is good is easier. If you don't have too much lift, reinstalling the factory track bar would be good enough unless it was bad too.
cosmokenney said:
I just couldn't swing the cost of a Dynatrac/MetalCloak set at $600 or more. But it looks like now I am going to end up crying twice.
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I would never recommend either of them. Most standard HD joints like the kind that Synergy or even Crown makes will get the job done and for CHEAP.
 
wayoflife said:
Have someone turn your steering wheel a bit to the right and then the left without actually making the tires move. Watch the bushing at the axle and then the frame to see if there's any movement/shifting side to side. There shouldn't be and if there is, the bushing is most likely going bad or is bad. That said, installing a different track bar that you know is good is easier. If you don't have too much lift, reinstalling the factory track bar would be good enough unless it was bad too.

I would never recommend either of them. Most standard HD joints like the kind that Synergy or even Crown makes will get the job done and for CHEAP.
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Jeez... $150ish for the Crowns. $300 for the Synergy. Wish I had seen this recommendation when I was doing my google research lol. Is either of the two going to be preferable over the other?
 
cosmokenney said:
Jeez... $150ish for the Crowns. $300 for the Synergy. Wish I had seen this recommendation when I was doing my google research lol. Is either of the two going to be preferable over the other?
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They're pretty much all made in the same place and just packaged in different boxes. And I should note, they are WAY FASTER and easier to just swap out when their worn out versus the serious pain in the ass it is to "re-build" the more expensive brands. And believe me, I have run the more expensive shit on my rigs and have since gone back to the cheap stuff.

Social media and the internet is a tough place - a LOT of really bad information and advice can be found there and sadly, it typically comes from whoever can pimp the best. Me, I can only offer my personal experience running a LOT of different stuff over the last 25+ years. If I can save you some money and headache, I will always try.
 
Disciple Off Road said:
Bummer to hear your frustrations with the Jeep. Based on your story, clearly something changed/got damaged on that trip to cause it again OR, were your wheels packed full of snow when driving back on pavement?
Click to expand...
By the way if you were asking if the wheels where packed with snow when I experienced the DW, then no. I started to notice it the day after when the snow had melted out. And it happened again slightly a couple times over the last couple of weeks. Last night is when it tried to kill me. And so there is no snow in the wheels now for sure.
 
wayoflife said:
Me, I can only offer my personal experience running a LOT of different stuff over the last 25+ years. If I can save you some money and headache, I will always try.
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I'll trust personal experience over the internet any day of the week. Thanks for all the replies.
By the way do you use one of the jeep specific angled adapters for your ball joint press? When I did the teraflex install, I had a to "fab" a wedge to get them to go in straight and it was real pain.
I've looked at the adapters available on amazon and some people said they weren't tall enough for some ball joints. If you have a recommendation for those I'd like to get one if I end up doing ball joints again.
 
cosmokenney said:
I'll trust personal experience over the internet any day of the week. Thanks for all the replies.
By the way do you use one of the jeep specific angled adapters for your ball joint press? When I did the teraflex install, I had a to "fab" a wedge to get them to go in straight and it was real pain.
I've looked at the adapters available on amazon and some people said they weren't tall enough for some ball joints. If you have a recommendation for those I'd like to get one if I end up doing ball joints again.
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I wouldn't pretend to know as much as what some people say but this is what I have and what I use on my Jeeps
 
cosmokenney said:
I'll trust personal experience over the internet any day of the week. Thanks for all the replies.
By the way do you use one of the jeep specific angled adapters for your ball joint press? When I did the teraflex install, I had a to "fab" a wedge to get them to go in straight and it was real pain.
I've looked at the adapters available on amazon and some people said they weren't tall enough for some ball joints. If you have a recommendation for those I'd like to get one if I end up doing ball joints again.
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The wedge is probably the more important adapter, I have found some of the cups not tall enough to fit different brand ball joints.
But you can rent a kit from any auto parts store for free, they don't come with the wedge
 
jeeeep said:
The wedge is probably the more important adapter, I have found some of the cups not tall enough to fit different brand ball joints.
But you can rent a kit from any auto parts store for free, they don't come with the wedge
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I have a big OEM Tools ball joint press kit (21 pieces). But the angled adapter is not included.
 
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