Emergency help

Did you remount your steering stabilizer while doing you lift? If so check and make sure it can handle the new found weight your new tires brought with them. When I went with 33 BFG Mud Terrains I had to get a new stabilizer.
Just a thought
Brian

1. Check alignment, specifically toe.

2. Ensure everything is tight, especially trackbar.

3. Check castor, do you have adjustable front control arms.

4. Check wheel balance.

5. Warped rotors can cause it also.

Did you retain factory pitman arm ?

Check that your front U-joints are not siezing up. But most likely, your caster is off or your steering stabilizer is bad or not up to the job.

Steve

Check the track bar and your front lower and upper control arms to make sure nothing there worked loose since you put the lift on.

If you have not had it aligned or even adjusted the toe-in after the lift then that is your problem. Putting on the 3.5" coils will cause your wheels to toe-out so they must be adjusted to toe-in slightly otherwise you will have sloppy steering and a bad case of death wobble.

Quote from "fly-n-hi"

ok I took the front driveshaft off so that would eliminate the u-joints and caster. right? I wouldn't think the steering stablizer is bad because its only a 1 1/2 years old with 30,000 miles. I will order a steering stablizer on Monday just to make sure. Any suggestions on a manufacturer?

The steering stabilizer might mask some problems, but it will not cause DW.

Did they set the caster when they did the alignment? Caster has nothing to do with your drive shaft.

One other thought would be if you are still running the stock trackbar, it may be causing the axle to shift and throwing things out of whack.

Quote from "fly-n-hi

I will order a steering stablizer on Monday just to make sure. Any suggestions on a manufacturer?

Kenny

You can upgrade this from the dealer, sort of, if you want. You can order a steering stabilizer off of a 98 Grand Cherokee, they're a little bit beefier than the TJ ones. I replaced mine with one, got it a NAPA (call first to see if they stock it). You might want to double-check with Quadna on the year of the GC to get it from, just in case I'm wrong. It's a direct bolt-on obviously. Just a thought.

Paul

Quote from "fly-n-hi"

Tomorrow I'm going to install the front track bar to see what that does .

Soooo, are you saying that this whole time youve been running without the track bar?

I would put a shiny new nickel on a bet that says your problem is right there.

He does have his stock trackbar on but is putting an adjustable one one. A TJ is undrivable without a trackbar. The problem started before the new lift so i am hoping the new trackbar will fix the problem if not then it may be a worn out tie-rod end in the tie-rod or draglink

Quote from "Keith_C"

1. Check alignment, specifically toe.
2. Ensure everything is tight, especially trackbar.
3. Check castor, do you have adjustable front control arms.
4. Check wheel balance.
5. Warped rotors can cause it also.

kenny,
keith's right on the money in the points he made...and even pretty much in the order in which you should be checking them.

get (er, keep i should say...i just got a chance to post this even though you get the alignment already) the toe-in set. that cow-town site will get you close enough to never have issues again. i've been using that as my method and am not having issues whatsoever with dw.

an improperly adjusted trackbar or rather the lack of an adjustable one once you lift a tj will be the #2 cause of your dw. i'm glad to see you're putting on an adjustable one instead of just relocating the axle mount of the stock one with a newly drilled hole - that fix just weakens the factory mount. once that new trackbar is installed tighten the nut tight - and then tighten it a little more. (oh, if it's the RE one then make sure you have a 5/8" bit handy for drilling the new hole).

keep your caster at the proper angles...again, that site will get you close enough to run smoothly on the highway in a pinch. i've been lucky enough to be able to just adjust the upper arms to the point where my front driveshaft is at a good alignment and then didn't have any problems with caster.

finally, wheel balance. wheel balance alone can cause some serious dw...but usually there's already some other factors (above ones) that are contributing...the out-of-balance wheel just aggravates and allows the dw to progress to the point where you're bouncing across lanes on route 1. just some large globs of mud in a wheel is all it takes sometimes - so a good visual inside the wheels will sometimes be in order after hitting mud. also, if you think a thrown wheel weight is the culprit - just rotate your tires as a troubleshooting tool. 15 minutes of time and zero dollars and you'll either pinpoint or eliminate the wheel balancing.

i'd shoot for getting that trackbar on as soon as possible and then either align it yourself or bring it back to ntb if you got the yearly warranty. you can opt for the new steering stabilizer if you wish...but i'd be willing to bet that it isn't bad. i ran mine up through 33" tires...and then changed it in hopes of eliminating my dw at the time. nope, didn't change it a bit. paul's right about the grand's steering stabilizer though. i'm still running that one that i picked up at napa. it's cheaper than some of the aftermarket ones and usually in stock too. just tell them that you want one for a '97 grand with the v8 and you'll be in good shape. seems to do the job with my lift still and even with the 37" tires.

sure hope you get it all worked out - give me a call tomorrow during the day if you want.
chris

p.s. keith's direction about the pitman arm is right also. tj's are alright when lifted and using the stock arm until you hit upwards of 5" of lift. i'm at 7" now with my suspension lift and am just now seeing signs of bumpsteer.

Quote from "fly-n-hi"

I've installed the adjustable track bar and took it for a short test drive. I didn't experience death wobble or and but of shimmy. The steering feels really funky though. I have what I think is alot of negitave caster. I'm under the impression that negitave caster is bad. I also checked the toe-in and found its toed-in about 3/4" so I'm heading back to NTB to have them fix it.

Me still leary of any bumps in the road.

You should be shooting for 5.0-6.0 degrees of positive caster. Anymore than that will cause pinion angle issues.

If they look at the charts for an '03 TJ it's gonna say caster is non-adjustable. Hope you get a guy that knows Jeeps.