I picked up '95 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4x4 yesterday, and it's got a bit of a wobble at highway speed, though not anywhere as bad as the "death wobble" that I've heard about. The front tires have a really bad wear pattern on the outside of the tires (camber?), so I'm going to throw some new tires on it. I'm looking for a mechanic/shop that, after I put on new tires, can check the front end for any other bushings that I might need to replace and then give it an alignment. Suggestions?

Or maybe someone here with some XJ knowledge wants to take a look at it for $rhode_island?

8/31/2012 6:39:19 PM

im also looking someone for my YJ. Would rather go with a reputable shop.

8/31/2012 9:24:53 PM

There are a few things to check out. Ball joints, track bar, unit bearings, etc. I can check them out if you'd like. Pm me if you want

[Edited on September 2, 2012 at 8:49 PM. Reason : .]

9/2/2012 8:48:40 PM

Basically any shop can do this for you, even the tire places can do most of the work to fix the problem. May need new wheel bearings, wouldn't hurt anyway, and make sure the trackbar is tight, and an alignment. Pretty elementary stuff. I'd just shop around for some quotes first.

9/4/2012 12:21:35 PM

I'd also recommend replacing the steering stabilizer. When I dropped the oil pan to replace that gasket and the RMS in my wife's '99 XJ, I had to remove it. Since it's cheap and I banged up the old one I decided to replace it. I drove the XJ down the street to Autozone without it (I just left it off so I could take it in for easy comparison) and once I hit ~50 mph I thought my fillings were going to fall out the vibration was so bad.

I kept it below 45 on the way home, then installed the new steering stabilizer, and she rode smooth again. I've never known a steering stabilizer to make that big of a difference, but it did.

It's like a 10 minute swap and maybe $25.

9/4/2012 2:54:09 PM

I think I'm going to keep the tires that are on there and just rotate them. I'm starting to think the odd wear is actually from the front fender liner. They're 235/75R15 and the thing originally came with 215/75R15. Other than that they've got a good bit of tread left.

Jeepman, I'll probably PM you about taking a look at it. Ya, it's pretty basic stuff and any shop could do it, but I was hoping for a recommendation for a good shop and one that would be aware of any gotchas on XJs. I'd do it myself, but I don't have the time, tools, or patience for it at the moment. I'll get around to it all eventually if I don't take it somewhere first.

9/4/2012 2:57:46 PM

^^fwiw, if the stabilizer was damping that much vibration... chances are the alignment was out of whack.

Jeepman, well shit, the name says it all.

9/4/2012 4:40:09 PM

^yeah i agree, but only a couple months prior to that I'd gotten 4 new tires and an alignment. Tires aren't showing any unusual wear (maybe that's just because Michelin LTX M/S tires are badass) and there's no pull left or right.

At first I thought the caster could be off, b/c that's what gave my Yota crawler death wobble after I did a SAS, but this XJ is still stock across the board. Weird.

llama, if you don't mind could you post once it's all said and done? I'm curious.

9/4/2012 5:06:48 PM

^caster/toe both. and yes, if you've SAS'd then you probably know

9/4/2012 5:09:19 PM

my gas line is leaking. i replaced my tank back in October of last year but i never replaced the rubber hoses from the top of the tank to the metal gas lines. The jeep has been sitting more lately so my guess is they finally dry rotted to pieces.

I could probably do this but i've moved and don't have the tools. I assume a jack and maybe some air tools to get the bolts loose. Drop the tank down a bit, replace hoses.

9/4/2012 6:21:45 PM

^yep. do it.

9/4/2012 9:49:23 PM

god in both my jeeps i dropped the gas tank down to replace pumps and such atleast 10 times... that shitty rubber gasket on the top of both dry rotted leaving just the metal spacers holding a 1/4" gap for dirt to get into my tank before i purchased each...thus they each ate a fuel pump about annually.

9/5/2012 8:01:26 AM