92 cherokee laredo front end vibration

Try rotating your tires to the rear. If it is a tire problem it will now be in the back. If not, have your replaced your steering damper? Front drive line. Just a guess, but it'll give you something to do. Maybe I'll keep my day job.

"Steering damper" is a new word for me, so I guess never replaced it. My question is, the vibration is not only from the steering, I can feel from the floor, and the passenger can also feel it.

Good one!

Jeffro G

At that age I would be checking the track bar close. That is a bar that goes on a diagonal from the passenger side axle up to the drivers side frame in the front. It wears out in 2 places. The bushings at the axle and the ball joint at the frame. If you have someone cut the tires side to side while you watch it, you can see play in the bushings and movement in the ball joint if either is bad.

Your steering has a shock or stabilizer on it to slow down vibes, it could be worn out. 'Usually' you can see signs of leaks when worn out.

The rad fan can also make a really strange vibration when it is worn out. Bad enough I thought I was going to lose a front wheel when ours went.

If you are in the neighborhood, drop on by Herb, maybe we can spot something here.

Mike

Herb wrote:

I have a 93 Cherokee and I just replaced the track bar mount that was worn, it was caused by a track bar that was worn and eventually wore the mount.

You may have a slipped belt in a tire as well, we all know Cambodian Tire doesn't always get the best things.

What part of Canada you in??

Snow

Definitely check out the trac bar ------- as well as the track bar mount.

This particular suspension (forward 'lead' of control arms) is 'naturally' unstable for vibrations and unless the trac bar, trac mount and steering damper are 100% correct you will get 'nodes' of vibration.at various driving speeds. The trac bar (and damper) prevents these natural oscilations from occurring; the damper is there for 'transient' vibrations caused by 'bumps in the road' etc. the trac bar there to prevent 'natural frequency oscilation'. The symptoms of vibrational instability will be found by carefully examining for adverse wear patterns on the road surface edge of the inside of the inner tire tread margins.

Check the inside margin of the tires (the inside tread).... lightly rub your hand along this margin and feel for uneveness and irregular wear patterns on the surface (only on the 'inside' tread). If you find them do the following test: Engine off, steering wheel centered - turn steering wheel 180 degrees back and forth, sight down hood at far distant object ..... and if the body is 'moving' with respect to a far distant object when you rotate the steering wheel back and forth then you probably have something loose in the trac bar or its mounting on the frame. If the body moves have an assistant rotate the wheel while you are under the vehicle and look for the sites of looseness on the trac bar and mount.

For the trac bar *mount* on the frame - ... be *sure* that all the bolts are fully torqued especially the ones that attach the bottom flange of the mount to the frame --- then test for movement between the trac bar itself and the mount. If any of the mounting part are loose, use RED locktite to reassemble and re-torque. The mount is very subject to wear (ductile deformation) in the hole that accepts the pin/spindle of the trac bar .... only a few 'thousands' of 'play' in the 'hole' of the mount will magnify to a LOT of vibration when the steering components reach their "natural frequency" of oscilation. If the bottom flange bolts of the mount are loose, the vibrations when they occur will be greatly MAGNIFIED.

Check the inner tread on the tires !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! any 'waviness' of the (road) surface of the 'inside' tread indicates a loose trac bar / trac bar mount. The waviness on the inner tread margin is caused by induced 'natural frequency vibrations' the same thing that makes a violin string vibrate - the suspension is the violin string, the road surface is the 'bow'. A dead tight trac bar system will keep this from happening.

Hope this helps.

thank you so much for the input. I did check the track bar. When I turned the steering wheel all the way from stop to stop, the front end moved from left to right obviously. The ball joint at the frame(the joint at driver side)moved slightly up and down.

I also checked the inside tread of the front tires, didn't find irregular wear pattern.

Any advice how to tight the ball joint or replace it, what's the cost.

There you go Herb, visible up and down movement is way more than enough to give you the shakes.

They are expensive buggers! You have to buy the whole arm. I think these guys might have the best price on them, cheaper than Canadian Tire if I remember right. They also put mine on for a good price. They can be a real pain to change. They had to torch mine off!

Herb wrote:

thanks Mike. How much roughly? If leave it as is, how bad it will be , I mean is it safe?

It 'will' break and the result is commonly known as 'The Death Wobble'. It comes by the name honestly. Meanwhile the vibrations will kill the steering damper and stress and wear the ball joints and steering linkages pretty fast on an older beast. It can get really expensive if left too long.

The part is in the $120.00 area or $140.00, don't remember and a half hour with power tools on a hoist to put it on.

Mike

Herb wrote: