On road stability problem - ball joints

[Art Welch]

My TJ had been driving really well on the road, on road trips of 50 miles were no problem at 65 mph (which may not sound like much to you but for me it was great vs the past). Then last weekend I was replacing an axleshaft and noticed that the ball joints were bad. It was a convenient time to replace them so we put the new ones in (D60 OEM application from a 2001 F350 dually).

Now it is driving horribly on the road. There isn't any death wobble but it is all over the place starting about 45 mph almost as if there is slop in the steering box. There isn't though, it is very tight as is everything else in the steering system including the ram assist and the rod ends. It is really jumpy and frankly not safe at anything above 45 mph.

One theory is that I was relying on the bad ball joint slop to mush out this feedback from the road all along. Another is that I overtorqued the ball joints and combined with them being new (they are very stiff and hard to move by hand) have introduced some twitchiness into the system.

Any ideas? It is definitely ball joint related as it was fine Saturday with "bad" ball joints and bad on Monday with the new ones.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by Art Welch
My TJ had been driving really well on the road, on road trips of 50 miles were no problem at 65 mph (which may not sound like much to you but for me it was great vs the past). Then last weekend I was replacing an axleshaft and noticed that the ball joints were bad. It was a convenient time to replace them so we put the new ones in (D60 OEM application from a 2001 F350 dually).

Now it is driving horribly on the road. There isn't any death wobble but it is all over the place starting about 45 mph almost as if there is slop in the steering box. There isn't though, it is very tight as is everything else in the steering system including the ram assist and the rod ends. It is really jumpy and frankly not safe at anything above 45 mph.

One theory is that I was relying on the bad ball joint slop to mush out this feedback from the road all along. Another is that I overtorqued the ball joints and combined with them being new (they are very stiff and hard to move by hand) have introduced some twitchiness into the system.

Any ideas? It is definitely ball joint related as it was fine Saturday with "bad" ball joints and bad on Monday with the new ones.

You know the drill Art, start with the basics. Have someone crank the wheel back and forth Etc. with the motor off and I'm gonna guess that a coincidental part is either loose or failing. Bad timing in other words.

[Matt Pascoe]

Have you checked your caster?

I know some ball joints are offset to modify your caster, maybe something got screwed up there

[Art Welch]

I'm pretty sure that the steering stuff is tight but logically that does make sense Blaine and I'll test it again. The one spot I know of with a tiny amount of slop is the rod end at the knuckle end of the drag link.

Matt - if you look up "really bad caster" in the dictionary my picture is probably there, I have zero return to center. That is an interesting point about offset ball joints though. What I should have done a few years ago was to rotate knuckles and set the right caster, at this point there are mounts welded near enough to the knuckles that I can't grind out the welds to rotate them without a bunch of work in removing the mounts first. That is probably the right thing to do though.

[Robert J. Yates]

I know you probably don't want to hear it but I'd check out that trackbar Art. If you have a bad bushing or rod end, your steering will definitely be on the funny side.

[Bruce David]

Hey Art,,
I know from personal experience that its usually
the lose nut behind the wheel..