Please help Steering issues
 

Recently purchased a 2015 rubicon that was already lifted that has horrible steering/death wobble at all speeds

uknown lift kit - 3 1/2 to 4” lift
Front measures 13”
rear measures close to 8 3/8



sits on 20s with 35s

hoping to get it in garage soon and mess with, but figured id make a post with pics to see if anyone can spot a issue/etc to get a better starting point

thanks in advance!




https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jk-...62394b8ad.jpeg
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Welcome to JKF.. welcome aboard. Some interesting components on your rig.. as for the dwobble... check out this video;

You have Metalcloak steering components there, and those are quality pieces. I can't say there's no way that you have a bad joint cuz don't know the age of those components, but I would bet a lot of money on you having an issue with those factory ball joints before any of the MC items.

Separately, it looks like you have no caster correction. Those are factory control arms, there are no control arm brackets, and there are no cam bolts. Your caster is likely in the -2.8° range and you really want that up between 4-5°. If you don't offroad in big rocks, control arm brackets are an inexpensive way to raise caster back up. If you do wheel in the rocks you might want to look at adjustable control arms.

Those do not look like MC springs by the way, so someone has pieced things together. There is nothing wrong with that......I run a Frankenlift myself. At some point someone knew well enough to go with decent steering components.

Oh, and double check the torque on both those track bar bolts are 125 ft lbs. TB bolts and joints are the #1 cause of wobbles, ball joints a close 2nd IMO.

Hey thanks for the replies, the weather finally warmed back up so got her in the garage, and on jack stands

So far it seems the lower ball joints are the main issue, they were the tera flex hd adjustable w kurl

even after adjustments they were still to loose, but the driver side werent pressed in completly so not sure if that whats caused them to fail or what

Also not sure what to put back in yet, go back with teras, a different adjustable or just get non adjustable, i searched the forums and got 100 different answers on best ones lol

And your correct on the springs there not meta, but i found no markings to id them, overall the po dumped money into, but skimped in the none viewable areas to make me think they used it for more show then offroad

also your right! i didnt think about caster! I will look into adjustable arms or brackets for sure!


Thanks!

You won't like the price tag, but Rare Parts BJs are what I would put in if you replace them. Not sure where you're at in DFW. I'm just to the west side of Fort Worth myself in Willow Park (north side of Aledo and not quite to Weatherford).

Will Rare Parts work if the current bj's installed are knurled as OP says they are? When I had mine installed the OEM ones were pressed out and the RP's were pressed in and the RP's bj's are not knurled IIRC.

And this as cheap as I have seen them in quite some time. -> https://www.offroadelements.com/rare...-jk-2007-2018/

You bring up a good point. I believe that you are correct in that the RP's don't even offer a knurled version. That said, I've been down this path before in my BJ journey long ago when I installed knurled DT's thinking I needed to cuz the Synergy's I had been burning through were knurled. A lot of these knurled BJs have such light knurls it's not really a big thing, but I have never seen new TF ones in person to tell what thiers are like. My opinion is along the lines that unless you have pressed in/out multiple knurled units over time (ie, you've only installed maybe 1 set of units) that it's not a huge deal to follow with non-knurled, BUT, if going down that path I'd definitely give the guys at RP a call. They are friendly and helpful folks and they've seen a lot of stuff along the path of their development. They would be able to say "nah, that's not a big deal at all" or "meh....I'm not sure I would do that". Most people are turned off by the price of those BJs but I really do think they are the best option.

So here is something really weird. I was just searching for knurled Rare Parts bj's for Jeeps and came across these -> https://fcrcmachine.com/rare-parts-l...okee-wj-13913/

They come with knurled lower ball joints, but, they are also Cerakoted. :dontknow2: Never seen that before.

It's been a good while since I've searched around on them myself. I've hoped to never have to jack with ball joints again.....though the last axle swap I did I inherited another set of DTs.....which I'm sure I'll have to rebuild again at some point. Those cerakoted RPs look sexy :brows:.

I appreciate all the replies, sorry for the delay in response, its been a crazy week!! And i know where willow park is! Im in granbury area,

i had a hard time finding the rare ball joints in stock without a shipping delay, so i went back with Tera flex adjustable for now, and added aev drop brackets

but still having the same issue, i did notice the drag link has some clunking in it, and some play, so i contacted metal cloak about buying replacement ends to see if that helps as im running out of ideas lol other then take to a shop

the steering consist of;
tera flex balljoint
stock gear box
stock pitman arm
metal cloak drag link
metal cloak trac bar
metal cloak tie rod bar
metal cloak rock port dampener
aev geometry bars (middle hole) per measurement
20 fuel rims 35 pro comp tires