[Koopatrooper24]

Hey Everyone! I am new to posting to this forum. I bought a 2013 Wrangler Unlimited Sport that was already lifted a while back. So I am unsure how big of a lift it has. But it also has 35's that I run at about 28 psi. I have noticed lately that there was excessive vibration/movement in the wheel and the Jeep sways back and forth when going highway speeds. I took it in for an alignment/rotation and they adjusted the toe and centered the wheel. However it still sways back and forth at highway speeds. Please see the alignment measurements below. Any recommendations for this issue and to make it ride smoother?

 

[snout]

OP, before we get into it:

• You are going to get slapped for not posting any information about your suspension
• You might further ingratiate yourself to the last 2-3 people who still use this forum if you posted a "welcome" post in the welcome area before immediately suckling the help-teat.
• Nobody on JKO quotes replies so you will never know that someone has replied unless you subscribe to the thread.

Some questions:

• How many miles are on your Jeep?
• Have you ever replaced the balljoints?
• What kind of control arms are you running? Stock / aftermarket? Are they adjustable?
• Some details about brackets, draglink, stabilizer, etc would be helpful. Again photos are helpful.
• Drop pitman or flip kit?
• Photos might be nice. Someone here can probably figure out your suspension setup if they can see what it looks like.
• Tire / wheel details

Observations:

• Your camber is not adjustable-per-se unless you have offset balljoints. Wondering if those numbers are indicative of failing balljoints or possible damage. I may be over-reaching here.
• Your caster should be around 4º-5º.

Here are alignment specs for the front:

Ok, so some quick things to rule out:

• Get your tires re-balanced. If you can pay for a road-force balance, go for it.
• Try rotating your wheels around and see if there is improvement

Next steps:

• In my opinion, most wobble is caused first by imbalanced / improperly paired wheel / tire combos.
• Second, proper alignment and no gimmicky shit like double steering stabilizers or drop pitmans are a good idea.
• Check out this thread. It is the gold-standard for chasing down wobbles.
• Ask your alignment shop why they couldn't get closer to spec, especially on Caster. Guessing you had a book alignment where they won't touch anything that didn't come from the factory.

 

[Morris4x4Center]

I'd do a little bit deeper of digging with what you have.

What company is potentially stated on your shocks? Pics of the front end would possibly help (we need the underneath facing not pics of the grill I'll post an example shot to help).

I run my tires at about 35+/- so You can try airing them up since that's free and see how it feels but I don't think it would change the feel. You might need to upgrade your ball joints (costly labor, pain in the a$$ diy job), and front lower adjustable control arms (if you don't have aftermarket ones) might help with the caster angle.

A closer up shot like this would help. and a pic of the shocks and potentially the side where the controls show.

-Julia

 

[Koopatrooper24]

The Jeep has about 75,500 miles it any I have never personally changed the ball joints. I'm assuming the shop wouldn't touch anything besides the toe because it was not stock. I can possibly try to take it to the alignment shop again in order to adjust the caster, if they will do it.

The lower control arms are rock krawler adjustable and the upper control arms also appear to be adjustable. There is also a drop pitman and the tires are Ironman 35x12.50R17LT. The shocks are bilstein 5100. I am attaching some pictures of various angles of the suspension and ball joints.

I rotated the tires today and tested it out with about 37psi and it felt worse than having 28 psi in the tires.

 

[Morris4x4Center]

Perfect perfect! So a few things.
1)take it to a reputable 4x4 shop that does alignments (if you're conveniently in CO I can recommend some).
2)what is all of the fluid on the drivetrain/pan?
3)hard to tell exactly on the pic but the drag link seems bent (could be shadows)
4)I personally dislike ironmans. I haven't personally had them but they might as well be in the same category of treadwright tires.

This could be as simple as needing a tire balanced still or new ones, or it could be ball joints. You have quite a conglomeration of products and companies going on. But personally, I would look up good 4x4 shops near you and read their reviews and have them take a look.

Others can chime in a put in their 2 cents but that's what I see/think.

-Julia

 

[Koopatrooper24]

1) Do you know any reputable shops in the Phoenix area?
2) The oil cooler housing had a major leak that I fixed. It caused oil to go everywhere.
3) I am attaching two pics from both sides of the drag link

 

[j3ff3ry_j33p]

Hey Everyone! I am new to posting to this forum. I bought a 2013 Wrangler Unlimited Sport that was already lifted a while back. So I am unsure how big of a lift it has. But it also has 35's that I run at about 28 psi. I have noticed lately that there was excessive vibration/movement in the wheel and the Jeep sways back and forth when going highway speeds. I took it in for an alignment/rotation and they adjusted the toe and centered the wheel. However it still sways back and forth at highway speeds. Please see the alignment measurements below. Any recommendations for this issue and to make it ride smoother?

@snout is correct about the Welcome intro helping so we know who were speaking with .

Getting places will always be easier if you list your rigs build & specs ; I know you kinda did so , but my 1st advice is to know how to search jkowners.com on google.

" your search term or question site: jkowners.com"

use that format on google & get results for this forums insane amount of data on JKs.
Doing that & using terms for " measure lift on Jeep JK site: jkowners.com" would have revealed what I'm about to :

.
near impossible to help yourself w this if you don't know how much lift your dealing with
All that crap aside , your setup is not unlike how I ran my 4 door for a few years .

Youve likely reached time to support the worn balljoints (& probably endlinks for trackbar &/or drag link) that heavier tires exacerbate. I'm surprised you reached 75k on oem balljoints .
fwiw, heavy 35" Cooper MTs I ran were always at 27.5 - 29 psi.
drop pitman arms suck ; adj trackbar & bracket will assist better driving behavior . Even flipping drag link if over 3.5" of lift .

reading planman's diagnosis or his youtube videos will cure what ails you.

i am 85% balljoint /15% some or all TREs are shot

maybe some useful picts will help ; I see a possible bent oem drag link but photos can lie

 

[Koopatrooper24]

Using that measurement, I have 4" of lift.

 

[Morris4x4Center]

I would call SDHQ and see who they recommend shop-wise for that area (unless they can take it in. I'm not sure what their policy or if they do service stuff like that). They're a well-trusted company so they might be able to help get you into some good hands to figure out what's going on.

 

[Koopatrooper24]

Update: the shop I took it to for the original alignment stated they can't align the caster closer to spec because it needs offset ball joints and that's why they only adjusted the toe

 

[snout]

Update: the shop I took it to for the original alignment stated they can't align the caster closer to spec because it needs offset ball joints and that's why they only adjusted the toe

I think @j3ff3ry_j33p is spot on. You can all of this at home pretty easily with basic tools and some patience.
Did the shop check the balljoints? You can check them at home if you have an assistant (in my case a kid with a prybar) and a dial indicator.

 

[donjuan79]

It's because your caster is in the toilet. Should be 5 degrees on a stock pinion. And you don't need adjustable ball joints for that, you need adjustable upper and lower control arms which you said you have. The shop you're going to is filled with clowns. One look at your alignment sheet showing pretty much 2 degrees of caster is all I needed to see. It will never drive good with your caster that low. Go to a shop that actually knows what they're doing and tell them to set the caster to 5 degrees. You're welcome.