Drivetrain wobble

dgeist · **Posted:** Thu Feb 03, 2011 11:41 pm

I'm trying to diagnose a wobble in the kj that's been going on for some time. It's a slight wobble (what you might expect to feel in the seat of your pants if a tire is out of round), but it's consistent and hasn't changed since I first noticed it.

The symptoms are only noticable between about 15 and 25 mph (rush-hour traffic speed on the highway for me). Since I started paying attention, the wheels have been rotated twice, been balanced, an alignment performed, and completely new brakes and rotors installed. The diffs, t-case, and transmission all appear normal and don't show unusual wear. I can't see any torn boots on any of the driveline components.

I'm at factory ride height, but could a bad or stiff joint in one of the driveshafts cause this? Perhaps a bearing that is binding a little? What can I even do to diagnose where it's coming from short of replacing things?

Dan

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Feb 04, 2011 12:15 am

Have you checked the rear u joints?
Mine made something like a wobble when they were starting to go bad, actually they were rusted solid almost, so they were not moving. After you drive a few miles put your hand close to the u joint, if its warm its bad ( rusted )
good place to start anyways

dgeist · **Posted:** Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:11 am

tommudd wrote:

Have you checked the rear u joints?
Mine made something like a wobble when they were starting to go bad, actually they were rusted solid almost, so they were not moving. After you drive a few miles put your hand close to the u joint, if its warm its bad ( rusted )
good place to start anyways

A good first place to check. What would it feel like if it's in good shape? Cold? Luke-warm? (Not being sarcastic, I'm just not sure what temp threshold indicates a failure). Bear in mind it's in the 30s-60s here on any given day.

Dan

Jeep Dawg · **Posted:** Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:48 am

to me it sounds like you might have a wheel ballance or slightly worn tires. On all of my cars that did that, It ended up being that the tires were either unballanced or starting to unevenly wear out. Check to see if you are missing wheel ballances. People think I'm nuts but when I get new tires, I count and inspect my wheel ballances, because when my Jeep or other cars start to do strange stuff like that I look and count how many are left on the rim.

Rotate your tires and see if that wobble goes away or has a differant wobble.

If your having u-joint issues, it would be making some squeeking/grinding/clicking noise. Not 100% ruling that out, but no harm to check your drive shafts for their weight ballancers.

Drivetrain wobble

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