Hey all looking for some advice. My wife bought a used 09 JKU Sahara with 3” lift and 35” tires a few years ago. We’ve had some issues over the years but the current one I’m facing is an intermittent vibration emanating from the front passenger wheel area.

Sometimes randomly, most of the time after hitting a bump in the road the front passenger wheel sounds/feels like driving over a rumble strip or reflector lights. Stops when letting off accelerator or brakes are tapped. Happens at any speed. Not death wobble… Yet.

The Jeep had ridden on the rough side the whole time we’ve owned it but my wife had talked of it getting worse. It was time for new tires at this point so we got some 33’s to replace the worn out 35s.

NOTE: The old front passenger tire was worn more than the other tires and we could not rotate them due to its condition.

A couple weeks passed since we replaced the tires and my wife insisted our intermittent vibration problem was getting worse. So I drove the Jeep to confirm and indeed it feels more noticeable now than before. So we parked the Jeep and I have been working on it for the past couple weeks.

I followed planman’s death wobble guide and have been diligently going through my components.

Steering test: I immediately noticed a light knock coming from steering box/sector shaft. Less from pitman arm. Replaced leaking sector shaft seal.

Note: Jeep dates April of 09 but the steering box doesn’t appear to be Delphi. Leads me to believe current box is a replacement. Seems to be a bit of play from side to side in the whole sector shaft pitman arm area.

Replaced drag link end, tie rod end, upper and lower ball joints on both sides, and the drag link. All these parts were worn enough to merit replacement. None of this improved the issue. So then I replaced the hub unit bearings which were suspicious.

The track bar had already been replaced with an adjustable aftermarket one. Torque was good. The bolt holes are enlarged.! Not sure if they need washers welded, heavier washers, or a bracket. I put new heavier grade 8 washers on for now. Aftermarket track bar frame side bushing doesn’t allow for 9/16” bolt. Replaced axle mount bolt with 9/16 grade 8 shouldered bolt and heavier washers. Re torqued on ground. Axle bushing seems to be in a bind. Frame side track bar mount seems to be widened or spread out/ wonky.
Axle isn’t perfectly centered under Jeep.

Track bar axle mount bushing looks bad

Track bar frame mount looks wonky/ spread



The caster hasn’t been adjusted to compensate for the lift. Phone angle finder says about 3 degrees measured on the ball joints. The passenger side lower control arm mount has been welded on at some point and there appears to be a bent shock mount next to it. Shock seems ok and responds well. Control arm bushings appear ok I believe. I have been testing with front driveshaft removed.






I haven’t measured the camber. Although, I am concerned about my axle housing possibly being bent after seeing the damage around control arm mount shock area.

Toe in currently measures 1/4”. Plan to adjust to be between 1/16 - 1/8” this weekend.

I have swapped/rotated the front and rear wheels. I have rebalanced the new tires. Today before typing this I adjusted the air pressure from 35 to 30 psi. I only expect this to help mask the issue. I have not test driven since adjusting psi.

My next plan of attack is center the axle and look into a new track bar or new track bar bushings.

After that would be to buy adjustable control arms and adjust the caster.

Any ideas or anything I maybe over looking?
Any help, feedback, or expertise is appreciated.
Thanks!

 

Have you inspected the wheel bearings? Sorry if I missed you saying you did.

 

Both track bar mounts look terrible, the joints for the track bar look bad, the bolt looks bent on the frame side, and it looks like it's binding too. I like a joint with some rubber to absorb the shock loads...

 

I second this. The track bar bushing looks like it checked out a long time ago.