Help me diagnose this front end wobble

Braxtonsag

Braxtonsag

Member
I need some ideas on what could be causing this mean ass front end wobble I get around 50-58mph. It doesn’t start until around 50 and gets wobbly till about 60 and it chills out a bit after that. This isn’t death wobble, but if you stay at the speed where it’s most pronounced it has turned into a death wobble one time.

The facts:
The jeep didn’t do this before I swapped in the prorock 44.
Tires are not balanced now nor have ever been
The whole front axle is new minus knuckles and everything attached to them
Ball joints, track bar, drag link, tie rod and ends, control arms, lug nuts are all tight.
Pinion angle is 6.5* if I remember correctly, it’s not perfectly straight with the driveshaft. Angled down slightly


My thinking is the only thing this can be is that one of my tires belts are separating internally and it just happens to be a coincidence it happened while they were off the jeep. Balancing is probably another part of the problem but it didn’t do this on the dana 30 a few weeks ago. I am having the tires balanced this week to rule that out, but do any of you have any other ideas? All components are new minus the control arms, drag link, and track bar, but I haven’t noticed any play in them. I leave for Moab next Saturday and this is going to be a hell of a ride if I can’t get this diagnosed and fixed in time
 
Braxtonsag said:
I need some ideas on what could be causing this mean ass front end wobble I get around 50-58mph. It doesn’t start until around 50 and gets wobbly till about 60 and it chills out a bit after that. This isn’t death wobble, but if you stay at the speed where it’s most pronounced it has turned into a death wobble one time.

The facts:
The jeep didn’t do this before I swapped in the prorock 44.
Tires are not balanced now nor have ever been
The whole front axle is new minus knuckles and everything attached to them
Ball joints, track bar, drag link, tie rod and ends, control arms, lug nuts are all tight.
Pinion angle is 6.5* if I remember correctly, it’s not perfectly straight with the driveshaft. Angled down slightly


My thinking is the only thing this can be is that one of my tires belts are separating internally and it just happens to be a coincidence it happened while they were off the jeep. Balancing is probably another part of the problem but it didn’t do this on the dana 30 a few weeks ago. I am having the tires balanced this week to rule that out, but do any of you have any other ideas? All components are new minus the control arms, drag link, and track bar, but I haven’t noticed any play in them. I leave for Moab next Saturday and this is going to be a hell of a ride if I can’t get this diagnosed and fixed in time
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Braxtonsag said:
I need some ideas on what could be causing this mean ass front end wobble I get around 50-58mph. It doesn’t start until around 50 and gets wobbly till about 60 and it chills out a bit after that. This isn’t death wobble, but if you stay at the speed where it’s most pronounced it has turned into a death wobble one time.

The facts:
The jeep didn’t do this before I swapped in the prorock 44.
Tires are not balanced now nor have ever been
The whole front axle is new minus knuckles and everything attached to them
Ball joints, track bar, drag link, tie rod and ends, control arms, lug nuts are all tight.
Pinion angle is 6.5* if I remember correctly, it’s not perfectly straight with the driveshaft. Angled down slightly


My thinking is the only thing this can be is that one of my tires belts are separating internally and it just happens to be a coincidence it happened while they were off the jeep. Balancing is probably another part of the problem but it didn’t do this on the dana 30 a few weeks ago. I am having the tires balanced this week to rule that out, but do any of you have any other ideas? All components are new minus the control arms, drag link, and track bar, but I haven’t noticed any play in them. I leave for Moab next Saturday and this is going to be a hell of a ride if I can’t get this diagnosed and fixed in time
Click to expand...

Most probably related to balance. You can swap tires around and see if it improves or changes. Also, your tie-in/ toe-out might have changed - that can exacerbate tire balance shimmy. Did you do an alignment after the axle swap?

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rubiDave said:
Most probably related to balance. You can swap tires around and see if it improves or changes. Also, your tie-in/ toe-out might have changed - that can exacerbate tire balance shimmy. Did you do an alignment after the axle swap?

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Yep actually did it 2 days ago, and then rechecked it again today.

I think we’re all on the same page with the thinking that it’s the tires. They’re older and I’m noticing dry rot now, might be time to go ahead and just replace them before we leave.
 
Sounds like your due. Better safe then sorry out on a trip and lose a tire. And it’ll solve your balance issue at the same time


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler
 
wjtstudios said:
Sounds like your due. Better safe then sorry out on a trip and lose a tire. And it’ll solve your balance issue at the same time


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler
Click to expand...

Yeah I actually just ordered new ones. I really hate to pay 20 a tire to balance these when they need replaced anyways. And I’ll be even more pissed if I pay $80 to have them balanced and it turns out to be a belt or something inside one of the fronts. They’re bald enough now that with the dry rot etc I might as well just cut my losses and move onto a new set
 
Braxtonsag said:
Yeah I actually just ordered new ones. I really hate to pay 20 a tire to balance these when they need replaced anyways. And I’ll be even more pissed if I pay $80 to have them balanced and it turns out to be a belt or something inside one of the fronts. They’re bald enough now that with the dry rot etc I might as well just cut my losses and move onto a new set
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I just went through this same thing although mine started to wobble around 45 and stopped around 55ish. It was so bad I had a hard time believing it was just tires. Had them balanced at DT this morning for $80 and bam, wobble gone. A well spent 80 bucks!! I had one tire that was particularly bad and the rest were ok.

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It’s even better to buy the cert for DT even if you didn’t buy the tires there. Then you can rotate and balance them for free any time you like or until it is perfect. Worth the investment upfront.


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler
 
Arrcherr said:
I just went through this same thing although mine started to wobble around 45 and stopped around 55ish. It was so bad I had a hard time believing it was just tires. Had them balanced at DT this morning for $80 and bam, wobble gone. A well spent 80 bucks!! I had one tire that was particularly bad and the rest were ok.

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Discount out here won’t touch beadlocks. They used to, now they won’t even balance them.


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Arrcherr said:
Not many people around here run beadlocks. I hope they continue to at least balance them, it'd suck if they stop.

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I talked to my local shop, they said no way on balancing bead locks.

Sucks cause I give them all my yards business. Lot of tires from a rail yard. I can’t pull that business from them for personal reasons. I have stronger ethics than that.

Just wish my business pull could help me out a little more sometime, ya know? Is what it is ‘suppose.


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OverlanderJK said:
Discount out here won’t touch beadlocks. They used to, now they won’t even balance them.


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That’s what I’m afraid of as well. When I inquired about price I failed to mention they were beadlock but they’re really uptight about other shit. Easier to just replace the damn things, don’t have time to be jacking around with all these tire shops
 
Braxtonsag said:
That’s what I’m afraid of as well. When I inquired about price I failed to mention they were beadlock but they’re really uptight about other shit. Easier to just replace the damn things, don’t have time to be jacking around with all these tire shops
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This is the one thing keeping my from beadlocks, well the price too lol. I like that I can walk into DT and get my shit taken care of. It would really suck to have to mount/dismount in my teeny ass garage with the Jeep pulled in as wheel (we aren’t really supposed to be working on vehicles in the parking spots in my complex)


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RockinAZJK said:
This is the one thing keeping my from beadlocks, well the price too lol. I like that I can walk into DT and get my shit taken care of. It would really suck to have to mount/dismount in my teeny ass garage with the Jeep pulled in as wheel (we aren’t really supposed to be working on vehicles in the parking spots in my complex)


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I took mine to a local 4x4 shop and they only charged me 10 a tire to balance. Like others said any other big name store would not even touch them. I have ran into a few guys on the trails that are happen with the tire beads you put inside for balancing.
 
MericaMade said:
I took mine to a local 4x4 shop and they only charged me 10 a tire to balance. Like others said any other big name store would not even touch them. I have ran into a few guys on the trails that are happen with the tire beads you put inside for balancing.
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I never even mentioned the word beadlocks when I went to get them balanced. The only thing the manager said was 'thats a heavy tire/wheel combo, should be interesting' and then they started on it. I suppose they may not have realized but Hutchinson's are pretty obvious.

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