I took the Rubi in for a tire balance as I was getting a strange front end shimmy at highway speeds but it is not there all the time.

They rebalanced the tires and the tech said they were extremely out of balance, he took it for a ride and said he found no shimmy.

I leave the dealership and start to drive home and suddenly the shimmy is back worse than before and then just like that its gone. So I am thinking there has to be something loose on the front end.

So I go home and start jacking up the front end to look at stuff and I find the right front ball joints are sloppy and then check the left and it has some movement but not as bad as the right.

I am guessing the they are loose enough to allow movement of the front end. So I took it back to the dealer and requested that they fix it.

I only have a 1 3/4 inch BB and had no problems up until this last week.

The best part is that it has 35, 924 miles on it so its still under warranty.

 

I am having a very similar problem as well on my rubi. My tires are getting worn, but I don't think my tires are the problem. Usually hitting a bump on a slight curve will start the shimmy and it will get progressively worse shaking the hell out of the jeep as I try to bring it to a stop. I am guessing this is death wobble, but I have no clue what is causing it yet. I have checked under the front end a few times and don't see anything.

At about 35,600 miles the dealer swapped out the stock ball joints for adjustable ball joints after not being able to get the alignment within spec. I am about to go check the ball joints now.

 

You are describing death wobble, I only have a shimmy. I know what death wobble is as I had a 1967 bronco that had it real bad.

I really thought mine was tire balance, but after they do the ball joints, I will be putting wrench on everything on the front end for a check. I am still with stock tires and wheels with only a bb.

 

The ball joints on these JKs are notoriously bad. I am on my second set with 25K on the clock.

 

What's the process for checking ball joints?

 

Jack up the front axle and put a bar under the tire and floor. Pull up on the bar and you can see it the ball joints move. To check them you have to unload them.

A car with wishbone suspensions its done a little different.

 

Hey Don,

It sounds like your ball joints. But I agree with you when you get it back make sure you torque the track bar down to spec on both ends and your control arms to if they were loosened when you did the 1 3/4" lift.

If you need it I have a 1/2" torque wrench

 

Yea mine is more like death wobble. I jacked up each side of the jeep and checked the ball joints and everything was tight. I put a torque wrench on the track bar and it was about a full turn below 150 ft lbs. all other bushings looked good.

 

I thought spec was 125?

 

I think you are correct at the 125. I am wondering if I should loosen them up first before re-torquing.