my KJ is wild driving in 4wd. ditch diver!

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:32 am

well.. when in 4wd.. my KJ seems to be all over the road. it just seems to wonder all over the place and 'ditch dives' back and forth a little bit. Sitting in the drivers seat you can actually feel it wonder side to side.. especially on slick roads.. and most noticeable around 40ish mph. Holding the steering wheel straight my KJ will ditch dive to the left/right and i'll have to move the steering wheel 1/8th of a turn or more to bring it back.

When my KJ was new it handled GREAT in 4wd... felt solid as a rock on the road. Now it feels like i can hardly keep it on the road.

when my KJ is in 2wd it drives straight as an arrow. I could probably go for 5 miles without touching the steering wheel if the road were straight. The alignment is perfect.. and tires are brand new and very smooth.

a little background.
1. i'm running studded duratracs... but it acted the same with BFG KM2's
2. I just changed both from axles (JBA shaved) and intermediate shaft.. but it acted the same with stock axles/shaft
3. Running 4.10 gears with detroit locker in the back... and 4.10 gears in open diff in the front... I dont think it's the rear locker because i've had an aussie locker in it the past 2 years and it never was sloppy in 4wd.
4. 51,000 miles on a 3.7L with a 6 speed. (i bought it new and have taken VERY good care of it)
5. UBA upper control arms & frankenlift

any advice? This seems very odd to me.. but it sure makes snow driving unpleasant. where it used to feel like a tank.

bugnout · **Posted:** Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:44 pm

If your tire size or tire inflation pressure varies front to back, can make a big difference in the way it pulls.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:39 pm

Since the alignment is OK then thats out
also since its done it with two different sets of tires and wheels
that removes the tires/wheels/ air pressure etc
only thing that has really changed is the rear DTT right ?????
Does it seem to be kicking in and out OK?

RENE · **Posted:** Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:23 pm

The way you describe the problem, its for sure the front and back wheels are not turning at the same speed.If you could lift it up ,mark the wheels and spin them,it would confirm that.In my 40 yrs in auto mecanics,all the time I saw a similar problem, it was caused by different size tires front to back but since you played with the diffs a mistake could have happened there.

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Wed Jan 18, 2012 6:37 pm

thanks for all the replies! i have a little more information that could be the problem.

i jacked it up.. and had someone put it in gear to let all the tires rotate. Before i did that i turned them all by hand. the right front tire was very hard to turn, almost like the caliper was stuck however it has not smelt like burnt brakes at all. could that dragging right wheel be the problem? it was like that before and after the axle swap. weird that it doesnt pull in 2wd... but does in 4wd.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:21 pm

Could be it, in two wheel drive the front is not pulling so the drag would not be as bad. Now in 4 wheel drive with the front wheels pulling also a dragging caliper could just be enough to possibly make it pull

METCRD · **Posted:** Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:49 pm

*Edit* Follow Tom's advice, somehow I missed the hard to turn the wheel part.

I didn't read that you have had an alignment recently (I did read that it acted the same way before you changed the intermediates) so I have a quick "easy" check to see if your fronts are out of alignment. This is how I really new it was time to get an alignment because I had a similiar if not the same experience in my cherokee.

Drive down an unoccupied road that has some of the pavement showing, and some of the road covered in snow so that it would be possible to get one side to grip and one side to slip. Ideally there would be patches where both tires would be on snow. As you drive down the road see if you are being tossed to one side when one of the sides is slipping and the other is gripping on clean pavement. If this is the case I would take it in for an alignment. I experienced this with my cherokee and it could get hairy if one front wheel gripped and the other was on the snow.

Hope this helps, and makes sense.

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:11 pm

METCRD wrote:

*Edit* Follow Tom's advice, somehow I missed the hard to turn the wheel part.

I didn't read that you have had an alignment recently (I did read that it acted the same way before you changed the intermediates) so I have a quick "easy" check to see if your fronts are out of alignment. This is how I really new it was time to get an alignment because I had a similiar if not the same experience in my cherokee.

Drive down an unoccupied road that has some of the pavement showing, and some of the road covered in snow so that it would be possible to get one side to grip and one side to slip. Ideally there would be patches where both tires would be on snow. As you drive down the road see if you are being tossed to one side when one of the sides is slipping and the other is gripping on clean pavement. If this is the case I would take it in for an alignment. I experienced this with my cherokee and it could get hairy if one front wheel gripped and the other was on the snow.

Hope this helps, and makes sense.

that's exactly what i came to the conclusion of today. I have an apt monday to get it aligned. hopefully it does the trick!

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:27 pm

got it back from the alignment shop today. It turns out that the Toe In was way out of wack. He said when the toe in is out like that it will drive nice on dry roads and the steering wheel can be straight... but when it gets on slick roads it's really wild. which is exactly what was happening.

So now i guess i'll wait for some snow.. then go test it out and hope everything is good!

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:51 pm

well

Since I assumed your alignment was correct I took it out of the mix of what it could be!
Yeah I know just testing everyone right??? :ROTFL:

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:54 pm

tommudd wrote:

well

Since I assumed your alignment was correct I took it out of the mix of what it could be!
Yeah I know just testing everyone right??? :ROTFL:

i assumed it was too! haha.. darn thing drove straight as an arrow with a perfect steering wheel.... until it got on snowy roads that is haha.

TnRebel · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:16 pm

turn the ESP off and try it

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:37 pm

TnRebel wrote:

turn the ESP off and try it

i no longer have ESP.

however i did enable my ESP and it still did it.

good thought though. great thing to check just to cover the bases. thanks for your reply.

LIBERTYinLIBERTY · **Posted:** Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:47 pm

2006 KJ wrote:

TnRebel wrote:

turn the ESP off and try it

i no longer have ESP.

however i did enable my ESP and it still did it.

good thought though. great thing to check just to cover the bases. thanks for your reply.

How do you no longer have ESP? just curious how to do it, I want to get rid of it myself.....

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:52 am

LIBERTYinLIBERTY wrote:

2006 KJ wrote:

TnRebel wrote:

turn the ESP off and try it

i no longer have ESP.

however i did enable my ESP and it still did it.

good thought though. great thing to check just to cover the bases. thanks for your reply.

How do you no longer have ESP? just curious how to do it, I want to get rid of it myself.....

pull the ABS pump fuse

my KJ is wild driving in 4wd. ditch diver!

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