Steering Wheel Shimmy/Shake?

[goose5321]

Hey everyone!

First time poster here and I’m having some trouble with my 2023 Jeep 392, and I’m hoping for some advice. I’ve recently replaced a lot of components but I’m still experiencing a shake in my steering wheel when going over bumps not a death wobble. Here’s a list of everything I’ve upgraded so far:

• Steer Smarts front and rear track bars
• Steer Smarts tie rod
• Steer Smarts drag link
• Steer Smarts sector shaft brace
• Steer Smarts attenuator
• Steer Smarts steering stabilizer
• Teraflex ball joints
• Clayton 2.5” Overland Plus lift kit
• Accutuned Fox RR shocks (with new springs)

The tires are brand new 35” KO2s with barely 3000 miles on them since I got them early February, and were fine when I received them and did a single rebalance once after I’ve installed the lift kit. I’ve double-checked the torque on the components and a shop has also checked them, and everything seems tightly installed. Despite all of this, the steering wheel still shakes when I hit bumps even though everything is brand new less than 500 miles.

Could this be bump steer, a bad steering box or something else I’m missing? Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated!

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[58Willys]

35” tires are heavy, and when bounced by a road bump; they transmit some vibrations. My 33” have a bit of this. Along as it smooths itself out reasonably quickly and doesn’t go into a death wobble, that’s what you get with larger/heavier tires.

 

[Tncdrew]

Never, ever, dry steer your Jeep.

 

[DavidArmen]

Never, ever, dry steer your Jeep.

Let’s discuss this more.

 

[Tncdrew]

Let’s discuss this more.

Probably doesn't apply to OP (They have invested in greasable front end components), but as a general recommendation, (especially for non-greaseable components), dry steering tends to put a lot of stress on ball joints/tie rod ends etc. especially with large tires. This can really reduce the life of these components.

 

[Tncdrew]

I also follow a Ford Superduty forum, and see countless complaints about death wobble. Whenever I see people turning their wheels lock to lock while sitting stationary I just SMH.

 

[roaniecowpony]

After about 30,000 miles, my Steersmarts Yeti Pro (poly bushings) is doing a little shimmy with my 37s. It seems to be getting worse quickly. It looks like one of the bushings is moving more than desired. I ordered the bushing kit and have it in hand and will change them next week. They look like they're going to be tough to press. We'll see.

 

[AVGeek99]

Hey everyone!

First time poster here and I’m having some trouble with my 2023 Jeep 392, and I’m hoping for some advice. I’ve recently replaced a lot of components but I’m still experiencing a shake in my steering wheel when going over bumps not a death wobble. Here’s a list of everything I’ve upgraded so far:

• Steer Smarts front and rear track bars
• Steer Smarts tie rod
• Steer Smarts drag link
• Steer Smarts sector shaft brace
• Steer Smarts attenuator
• Steer Smarts steering stabilizer
• Teraflex ball joints
• Clayton 2.5” Overland Plus lift kit
• Accutuned Fox RR shocks (with new springs)

The tires are brand new 35” KO2s with barely 3000 miles on them since I got them early February, and were fine when I received them and did a single rebalance once after I’ve installed the lift kit. I’ve double-checked the torque on the components and a shop has also checked them, and everything seems tightly installed. Despite all of this, the steering wheel still shakes when I hit bumps even though everything is brand new less than 500 miles.

Could this be bump steer, a bad steering box or something else I’m missing? Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated!

When exactly did the shimmy start? Was it happening before you installed all the parts listed or did it start after the new parts were installed? Did you install all the new parts at one time?

Did you install everything, or was it done by a shop? Do you know if everthing was tightened while the Jeep was on the ground or while it was on a lift?

My understanding is the Teraflex ball joints are adjustable. Im not exactly sure what there is to adjust, but have you verified they are adjusted correctly?

 

[Bill_BCNtoNY]

It may be a somewhat simplistic idea, but quick to check at least… take a look and see if you’ve lost any of the wheel weights.

when I did my tire rotation a couple weeks back a bunch of them fell off one of my wheels. I now have an escalating shimmy every time I hit 50mph. Pretty sure that’s the only thing that changed, so I’ll get a rebalance!

 

[goose5321]

When exactly did the shimmy start? Was it happening before you installed all the parts listed or did it start after the new parts were installed? Did you install all the new parts at one time?

Did you install everything, or was it done by a shop? Do you know if everthing was tightened while the Jeep was on the ground or while it was on a lift?

My understanding is the Teraflex ball joints are adjustable. Im not exactly sure what there is to adjust, but have you verified they are adjusted correctly?

Ok so before I installed the lift kit and everything else, my Jeep drove perfectly fine and that was 35” tires.

I decided to do the Clayton Lift kit and the shop did everything to specifications keeping the toe at 1/8 in and caster around 4.5 to keep it like a stock Jeep feel. After the install that’s when I started to notice a slight shimmy/bump steer.

I assumed it was one of the steering components since I did drive the Jeep pretty rough so I decided to do all the steering components at once to eliminate any possible issue and this was done while lifted.

It drove better but the issue was still there and there was only one last possibility left which were the ball joints. The shop ended up doing the install and are brand new teraflex joints which were adjusted by the shop, but maybe I’ll adjust them to be tighter.

It did help a lot and drove better for 2-3 days then the shimmy/bump steer came back and honestly not too sure what could be causing it as all the main components were replaced. I’m thinking maybe the wheels went bad or there’s some issue with my steering box? Everything is brand new with less than 500 miles but I did drive the Jeep pretty rough before the upgrades so not sure.

 

[goose5321]

It may be a somewhat simplistic idea, but quick to check at least… take a look and see if you’ve lost any of the wheel weights.

when I did my tire rotation a couple weeks back a bunch of them fell of one of my wheels. I know have an escalating shimmy every time I hit 50mph. Pretty sure that’s the only think that changed, so I’ll get a rebalance!

I’m taking my Jeep again to discount tire for them to check the tire and weights this Monday and also road force balance, hopefully this fixes the issue!

 

[BUSHRVN]

Castor should be bumped up to 5-6.5 range, 4.5 is too low. Mines right at about 6 and it made it much better in feel, wander and shimmy from pot holes etc.

 

[Old Dogger]

Yep, have your caster set to a positive 6.0 degrees. This will help to stabilize the steering.

 

[AVGeek99]

Ok so before I installed the lift kit and everything else, my Jeep drove perfectly fine and that was 35” tires.

I decided to do the Clayton Lift kit and the shop did everything to specifications keeping the toe at 1/8 in and caster around 4.5 to keep it like a stock Jeep feel. After the install that’s when I started to notice a slight shimmy/bump steer.

I assumed it was one of the steering components since I did drive the Jeep pretty rough so I decided to do all the steering components at once to eliminate any possible issue and this was done while lifted.

It drove better but the issue was still there and there was only one last possibility left which were the ball joints. The shop ended up doing the install and are brand new teraflex joints which were adjusted by the shop, but maybe I’ll adjust them to be tighter.

It did help a lot and drove better for 2-3 days then the shimmy/bump steer came back and honestly not too sure what could be causing it as all the main components were replaced. I’m thinking maybe the wheels went bad or there’s some issue with my steering box? Everything is brand new with less than 500 miles but I did drive the Jeep pretty rough before the upgrades so not sure.

Your experience seems very similar to mine. Everything was great for the first 42k miles. That's when I got it lifted, and then immediate shimmy from bumps and occasional DW. I installed all the Steer Smarts Yeti stuff you have except the track bars. My MC GC lift came with trackbars and I wasn't about to replace brand new track bars. But I didn't do it all at once. I did the tie rod, drag link w attenuator, and steering stabilizer at the same time. Then the sector shaft brace; I think the sector shaft brace actually made the DW worse.

Then I did the ball joints, but I went with the DY HD ball joints. And Voila, shimmy and DW gone. I haven't had an issue since. I do agree the castor is too low at 4.5, but I wouldn't go past 6 degrees. I adjusted my castor when I was doing all the other work.

The shop that did the lift put my caster at about 3.8, which was way too low, it wandered a lot. I set it to 6.2 and it fixed the wandering, but didn't do anything for the shimmy or DW. But then it snowed and I had a pretty bad noise from the front drive shaft when in 4-hi starting at about 45 mph. I then adjusted the castor back to about 5.2 and that got rid of the noise. In warmer climates when you're mainly in 4wd while on the trail you can get away with a castor of 6+, but in snowy climates 5-5.5 is better.

 

[kah.mun.rah]

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