Alright so the problem, after a recent wheeling trip I had a bad shimmy at 45-50 mph. First thoughts were mud stuck to the wheel or an unbalanced tire, both wrong.

So I decide to replace worn components, started with the draglink. That tightened up the steering wheel a bit but still got a terrible wobble at 45-50 mph.

Next I did the ball joints, both upper and lower were shot, so I replaced them with new synergy hd ball joints. After that the wobble was gone, but a new problem presented itself, going over bumps made the jeep feel somehow "unconnected". Any bump gives it a floating feeling and some bumpsteer. On the highway the jeep is almost undrivable, it wants to swerve in and out the whole ride. Any micro adjustment feels like a quick swerve with a good amount of body roll.

I've now replaced the tierod with a synergy chromoly tierod and the same problem persists.

I know my shocks are either worn or completely shot, I'm wondering if this could cause any steering input with the body roll.

I'm so sick of this thing now, it drove perfect before the last trip and now I don't even want to look at it......

Specs on my rig.
4.75" of lift. 4" RC coil and a 3/4" coil isolator.
Front and rear adj trackbars, both are jks.
Upper and lower front and rear metalcloack arms
Synergy ball joints
Synergy tierod
37x12.5x17 Goodyear Mtrs
And some other odds an ends.

Any input is much appreciated.

(Btw) front axle side trackbar mount has a plate welded to it because the hole ovalled out.

 

Have you doubled checked the current caster and toe settings?

 

I checked toe, it was at 3/8 after the wheeling trip. I set it to 1/16. Now after the tierod the jeep wonders. Only thing that's calmed it down was a 0 toe. Have not checked castor yet, could it really change just from wheeling?

 

I realize that all of the brackets on the JK are super stout, but if you bent some CA brackets, that could definitely change your caster.

What are you doing for steering correction? Drop Pitman, perhaps? How parallel are the trackbar and drag link? Do you have a raised rear trackbar bracket as well? It may be time to finish out the synergy front end and go with a flip, and add a rear raised TB bracket if not already installed.

 

The track bar and draglink are parallel, no drop pitman, no track bar bracket. Everything's worked fine this way up until now. I just drove it again, it just feels like it wants to wobble (body roll wise) all the way down the highway.

 

My steering was like yours after new ball joints. It wouldn't return to zero at 1st and it seemed like you had to overcorrect whenever correcting. It took a while but they finally broke in. I got out in a dirt field and did a bunch of figure eights and wheeled it a bunch and they finally loosened up.

 

Really? Body roll and all? I looked up what you said about their break-in and it seems like a common problem

 

If your shocks are worn this could be a problem especially in the front

 

Not a lot of body roll but it was weird scary on the freeway, especially around semi trucks.

 

Lol yeah it's definitely a weird feeling steering setup.