PLEASE HELP post lift kit nightmare

[carlooch84]

Hey Everyone,

A few weeks back i had a 3 inch lift kit installed that i purchased form team grand wagoneer.

after install between 10-40 mph the jeep felt as if it was going over the worlds biggest rumble strips. everything was shaking, rattling, you name it,

after i hit a good speed, its smooth sailing. but that in between is unbearable and im afraid the more i drive it, its just going to break other things.

i posted on here for help, and have followed everyone advice. changed u joints/ball joints. replaced a tire that seemed that may have been bad, i even took the tires off and put the old ones back on (jeep was driving smooth before lift, thought maybe it was aggressive tires)
rear drive shaft was taken off and inspected.

i have the mechanic coming back in two days to see if he can find anything wrong. but its still doing it, and hes already been back twice.

is there anything anyone can think of? it friken sucks having this beautiful wagoneer sit there, when its in such good shape!!.

at this point i wish i never did any lift so i could have just drove it, but now im thousands in the hole, and would just love to figure out why it it feels like im driving over the worst rumble strips.

any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[61Hawk]

Just throwing this out here, don't know if it'll help. I know a guy who had an old CJ7 who lifted it and it was undriveable after putting the lift in until he put pinion angle shims in and then it drove like it was supposed to.

[SJTD]

Yeah, could be it needs more caster but seems to me that would cause wandering.

New ball joints where? On the knuckles? Tie rod? Drop link?

Wheel bearings tight enough?

Steering box tight, meaning properly adjusted?

Bent rim?

Shackle bushings good?

Extended shackles?

[joe]

If I remember your previous post about the shop bolting-on some driveshaft extension? My first plan would be forget your previous mech and ban him from your life, then take it to a pro driveline/suspension shop that understands geometry. Lotsa(too many) botched death-wobble lifts out there. Most are from a botched install job.

[JDD]

Death wobble

Do a forum search for Death wobble, there are a few versions to fix the situation.

[gpcl16]

Sounds like you need to get a different mechanic. Did he even test drive it before he gave it back to you? No way any competent mechanic would give a vehicle back to a customer driving like that. Anyways, what other repairs did the guy do when installing the lift? What do your pinion angles look like (front and rear)? That can cause serious vibration if it's off but I would expect it to get much worse as speed increases, not get better.

[bufurd]

Wheel speed vibration, or driveline speed vibration? Pretty plain the difference. I would put it up on jack stands and see if it can be duplicated, finding out if it's front or rear shouldn't be too hard. A 3" lift shouldn't cause issues with driveline angles and such, sounds like a bad CV joint but I don't believe that would go away at speed, same as a driveshaft out of phase. Isolating the guilty end would be where I would start. Good luck.

[carlooch84]

If I remember your previous post about the shop bolting-on some driveshaft extension? My first plan would be forget your previous mech and ban him from your life, then take it to a pro driveline/suspension shop that understands geometry. Lotsa(too many) botched death-wobble lifts out there. Most are from a botched install job.

FINALLY!! i was away and left the wagon with a mechanic one of my employees said he was going to for 20 years. they had an old guy there who said he was a lift kit specialist. found the problem in two minutes. the other mechanic didnt install the rear shims properly, was told they were on backwards.

they fixed it up, and now the wagon rides like the day it rolled off the assembly line........or close to

thanks for all your help, i told the original mechanic and he seemed to be surprised. the dummy.

[rocklaurence]

Death Wooble-- check the condition of all the joints. If they are good, then it is the Caster/toe-in adjustments. The Toe-in should be 1/4"-0" but never pasitive and the Caster needs to be 7-2 degrees. Caser needs to be in the direction where the front pinion is pointing towards the ground [clock-wise seen fromt the drivers side].