At the end of my rope of steering issues.***FIXED!****

[Kurt0]

Sub’d for results.

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[Roky]

Oh it’s stiff. I’m 198 and with it full stiff I can put all my weight on it and it won’t move. You actually have to apply more pressure to get it to move and it barely does.

Thinking this through a little when you hit a bump the wheel gets thrown in one direction or the other, the weight of the Jeep and the caster tries to return the wheel back to center, the stabilizer is basically neutral and wants to keep the wheel what ever way the bump forced it to go. After a few rounds of this it manages to find center and life is good.

I am going to try putting it back on tomorrow and sure it to it’s softest setting and see how it is.

When I first got mine I cranked it up thinking firmer is better, but I wasn’t taking my caster setting in consideration. After a week messing with it I finally took it off and mimicked the stiffness to my old fox ss. Then I just adjusted it firmer until the shimmy came back then I backed it off a click. Now it’s as firm as I can run it with my caster. Drives great.

 

[Cypher]

I ran my ATS at 17 as well. Any higher and the wheel feedback was worse and return to 0 was worse. I noticed you are running a Clayton track bar. Did you get the updated duraflex joint on the axle sode, or the johnny joint? I started with the Johnny Joint and had a lot of vibration in the wheel. After they made a duraflex version I swapped them out and it was drastically improved.

 

[Jeep&dogs]

I ran my ATS at 17 as well. Any higher and the wheel feedback was worse and return to 0 was worse. I noticed you are running a Clayton track bar. Did you get the updated duraflex joint on the axle sode, or the johnny joint? I started with the Johnny Joint and had a lot of vibration in the wheel. After they made a duraflex version I swapped them out and it was drastically improved.

I have the latest one, I originally had the Synergy bar and swapped to the Clayton trying to correct this issue.

 

[word302]

I will say that with the stock stabilizer it has better wheel return. With the Fox you had to center the wheel the last few degrees and with the stock it pretty much returns back 100%

That's how they are when you have them cranked to full. Like @Roky said about 17 or so seems to be the sweet spot. Stiff but still get the wheel to self-center.

 

[word302]

yes, that is true; i guess id be surprised if the damper had sufficient resistance to do that.

turn it all the way flat down and see if it still does it. Im really on the “bad damper” not “too stiff damper“; but ive never used that particular one.

You can definitely set them too stiff where the wheels won't self-center.

 

[Kurt0]

You can definitely set them too stiff where the wheels won't self-center.

It will forever remain a mystery to me why someone would want that much steering effort.

 

[MntsRcalln]

I actually have the teraflex nexus 2.2 an run mine of soft most of the time.

 

[JimLee]

If you max out an adjustable SS, you have effectively turned it into a stick. It has to be able to dampen small bumps quickly and maxed out it takes to much force. With the Fox maxed out you are actually making more travel translate through the steering to the steering wheel instead of less. Its like turning the compression up on an adjustable shock until it gives a horrible rough ride because its not longer traveling fast enough to keep up with the terrain. The ATS design is neutral, but that knob is a compression adjustment, it just works both ways unlike a shock where compression works in one way only.

 

[JimLee]

And im not saying that's necessarily causing people's steering issues, but I believe maxing out the SS is amplifying the problem at the steering wheel.

 

[Jeep&dogs]

Well I pretty much knew I would be laying in bed looking at the ceiling all night thinking about this so I said screw it and went out in the garage. I put the Fox back on and started with it all the way on soft and I have a set of roads I normally drive that I can get it to do it almost 100% of the time. I went one click up each pass. At about 8 clicks in it actually drives pretty nice, better than it has since this all started. Hitting the bump that normally set into a wobble 100% of the time at this setting I had a very minor shimmy one time out of about ten passes over it. Calling it a night and I might play around with the setting a little more tomorrow.

 

[Jeep&dogs]

And the funny thing is there really is NO noticeable difference in the way the steering feels, pretty much feels exactly the way it did turned all the way in.

 

[Fsttanks]

I know there are a few posts about this and I have read through every one at least a dozen times. I’m also not new to Jeeps, I have had a few Tj’s and built a few Lj’s before going to the JL platform. I have dealt with steering and suspension issues plenty of times but for some reason I can’t get the shimmy/wobble issues fixed on this damn thing.

2020 JLUR with 12k on it and no issues until a few months ago, had the tires rebalanced and installed the Dynatrac lift right about the same time. That’s when I started getting a wobble going over bumps or washboard sections of road. Not full on death wobble but a shimmy that lasts past the initial bump in the road.

The Jeep has the following:

Dynatrac lift
Clayton control arms (8)
Clayton front track bar (also had a Synergy on it)
Rock Crawler rear track bar
Rusty’s steel steering system
Dana HD ball joints
Synergy Track bar brace
New cast iron box
BFG KO2’s 35’s
Fox Race stabilizer


Caster is at 7 right now, I have tried 6,6.2,6.5,6.8,7.2
Toe is right around 1/16-0
Tire pressure cold is 28
Both axels are centered within 1/8
I have torqued and re torqued everything at least 10 times
If I do another dry steer test I am likely to set it on fire.
road force balanced the tires 5 times (They re

Other than the shimmy/wobble the thing drives absolutely fantastic. The shimmy honestly feels more pronounced when you first start driving the Jeep, as things heat up or settle in from driving it seems to calm down a bit. Big bumps don’t really seem to effect it much, smaller dips and bumps in a row are what seem to trigger it. Also grooved concrete seems to make it more pronounced.

What the hell am I missing???? I’m about at the point I am going to try replacing the tires but I’m not sure that is going to do it. I have thrown way too much time and money in this thing over the last two months. I sold a mint well built Lj to get this thing because I was tired of projects, I worked less on that than I do this thing and I literally rebuilt that thing from the ground up.

What psi were the tires balanced at? What rims are the tires mounted on?

28psi cold is kinda low for 35” KO2s. Not saying to run them at factory recommended psi that is to high for 35” KO2s. I run 35” KO2s at 32 psi cold because around 30psi cold I sometimes experienced some light “shimmying” issues between 50-60mph (my JLUR is not lifted yet). The slightly higher psi I run now has no shimmying issues. And as it turned out the tires were balanced at 32 psi. Small thing that has never really mattered with my past Jeep’s, but turns out this time it does.

My .02

 

[DuRsT]

Well I pretty much knew I would be laying in bed looking at the ceiling all night thinking about this so I said screw it and went out in the garage. I put the Fox back on and started with it all the way on soft and I have a set of roads I normally drive that I can get it to do it almost 100% of the time. I went one click up each pass. At about 8 clicks in it actually drives pretty nice, better than it has since this all started. Hitting the bump that normally set into a wobble 100% of the time at this setting I had a very minor shimmy one time out of about ten passes over it. Calling it a night and I might play around with the setting a little more tomorrow.

We would be friends. I can’t handle laying in bed knowing there is something I could try if I just got my ass up and did it. Following as we are about lift the wife’s Jeep, appreciate the thread.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Jim, Glad you found a solution. I believe all steering systems are capable of DW if: (1) there is enough of a force to excite it, and (2) there is enough force generated by the movement of the components (axle, tire). If you think about it, all suspension and steering systems will deflect laterally. There is no absolute stiffness. By increasing the tire/wheel weight, you add more inertia which will generate more force once "excited" by a bump.

Your result of killing the oscillation by reducing the steering stabilizer damping seems to indicate that the stablilzer damping was stiffer than the entire steering/suspension system. That is: it acted more like a solid rod in at least one direction, than a moving damper. By lowering the damping, the "natural frequency" of the steering/suspension system changed.

The "some is good, more must be better" logic doesn't apply to everything. Like Emeril says: "there's a knob, use it", in our case, meaning actually tune the steering damper to the suspension/steering system we have.

My guess is that you would have eliminated the oscillation by changing any one of a few different things, like tire weight, tire diameter, lateral stiffness of the suspension(trackbar).

It does sound like your steering damper has air in it or something else allowing a bit of an undamped area of movement. I'd get that fixed.

As for the setting on the adjustable damper, I'd use the lowest setting that gave no shimmy.

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