I have a 12 JK with a roughly 2.5 lift on 295/70/17 tires stock rims. My steering wheel shakes at 50mph and up, not a death shake but just the steering wheel. I was thinking it might be my steering stab so I took it off and drove down the road and got a killer death wobble at 40+. Put the steering stab back on and no death wobble but still steering wheel shakes. I'm running my tires all around at 32 psi. Can anyone help me? Could it be my tires need re balancing?


Thanks

 

Shake or vibration in the steering wheel is either wheel balance, bent wheel, or damaged/defective tire (pulled belt, out of round, etc). With sectional molding, tires are seldom out of round, not like in the '70s and '80s when my dad had a tire shop. A bad shock absorber will also exacerbate the condition of a badly out of balance tire, allowing it to bounce as one drives down the road.

Take it to the tire shop, get them balanced and rotated and check your shocks for signs of leakage.

Also, your post states you're running 295/70s on stock rims, implying you're running spacers. Make sure they're tight and make sure that the rotor assembly washers are removed from the wheel studs.

 

New lift = new alignment. Spend the $100 to rule that out first.

 

Ok cool yeah I'll get the wheels checked first. I tighten or really proof torque the wheel spacers all the time and they never move and the washers are off the studs. Thanks for the advice. O also no leaking shocks or steering stab.

 

Yeah I've never done a alignment before but it never had a shaking steering wheel. I did adjust to straighten my steering wheel back straight by two 15mm nuts and steering wheel is straight. Think I might need a alignment?

 

Shake or vibration in the steering wheel is a dynamic component (spinning parts) issue. A change in camber from a lift install will not cause a vibration, although it can have an effect on tire wear if the lift is extreme.

 

check your track bar bolts, tie rods bla bla bla .

Here this is easier

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-w...obbles-260145/

 

Unless you've been wheeling the hell out of it you shouldn't have a lot of steering component wear but you can easily check for it if you have a floor jack and a jack stand. Jack one side, enough to get the tire off of the ground and have someone else get in, start it, and move the wheel lightly back and forth at your direction while you watch the steering components from low in front of the Jeep. Watch the load up in the components, and look for any flexing or movement in the connections from the tie rod ends to the pittman arm, etc. Repeat the process on the other side. If something is damaged or loose it will be apparent. While each side is elevated, check your bearings for looseness/wear by wiggling the tire back and forth.

 

You have a shimmy. You pull the stabilizer off and have full blown death wobble. So you put the stabilizer back on and continue looking at the shimmy.

Stabilizers mask other problems, they don't fix them. Instead of diagnosing the shimmy, you might be better served in trying to diagnose the death wobble that appears to be the ultimate cause.

If you go up to the Write-Ups area. you will find a great thread by Planman on Diagnosing Death Wobble. Read through it and follow the steps to find which part is loose, worn, bent, whatever.

 

Had the same "shimmy". Mine was very subtle and turned out to be way out of balance 35" MTR Kevlars

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