Wandering issue

[G.SmithFab]

Hi, I've been chasing a wandering problem with my jeep, and I can't figure out the issue. I have a new tie rod, drag link, synergy ball joints, synergy sector brace, and a track bar that still can't solve the wandering issue. I did get the jeep aligned, but whenever I go on the highway or past 40 mph, I'm constantly correcting its path It won't track straight I have 37" milestars mounted on methods with 4.5" back spacing, please if anyone knows anything about this problem or where should I look next to get this problem fixed I would appreciate it thank you

 

[wjtstudios]

What tire air pressure are you running? You probably should be around 28-30 max

 

[WJCO]

Hi, I've been chasing a wandering problem with my jeep, and I can't figure out the issue. I have a new tie rod, drag link, synergy ball joints, synergy sector brace, and a track bar that still can't solve the wandering issue. I did get the jeep aligned, but whenever I go on the highway or past 40 mph, I'm constantly correcting its path It won't track straight I have 37" milestars mounted on methods with 4.5" back spacing, please if anyone knows anything about this problem or where should I look next to get this problem fixed I would appreciate it thank you

What's your tire pressure set at? Any play in your unit bearings?

 

[G.SmithFab]

What tire air pressure are you running? You probably should be around 28-30 max

35 all the way around at a lower psi I was having problems with the tread wearing uneven

 

[G.SmithFab]

What's your tire pressure set at? Any play in your unit bearings?

35 psi. How would you properly test for play in the unit bearings? I did the normal shake up and down left right no play

 

[JKbrick]

It could be the new ball joints just need broken in

 

[BaddestCross]

Caster should be closer to 4.25°... do you have adjustable control arms?

What JKbrick said about the ball joints could be a part of the issue as well. Most need about 500 miles to loosen up.

The tire pressure is also too high, but the Milestars are straight trash and they need to be over inflated to save the tread as you've already noticed.

My guess is tire pressure... Preferably better tires set at the correct pressure, caster, and stiff ball joints.

 

[G.SmithFab]

It could be the new ball joints just need broken in

Caster should be closer to 4.25°... do you have adjustable control arms?

What JKbrick said about the ball joints could be a part of the issue as well. Most need about 500 miles to loosen up.

The tire pressure is also too high, but the Milestars are straight trash and they need to be over inflated to save the tread as you've already noticed.

My guess is tire pressure... Preferably better tires set at the correct pressure, caster, and stiff ball joints.

It could be the new ball joints just need broken in

I already have more than 1000 miles on the ball joints and yes I do have all adjustable control arms. looks like I'm going to live with it until I get the tires replaced I will go again to the alignment shop and see if he can reduce the caster and see what happens

 

[FenderBender]

My Rare Parts ball joints took ~1-1.5k to break in and stop tracking strangely. There's a slight chance your ball joints are still breaking in at 1k. Fingers crossed, anyways.

I had a strange problem after installing adjustable control arms that alignment shops didn't fix. I accidentally screwed up the thrust. The thrust is the angle between the front axle and the rear axle. If your rear wheels are pushing you in a slightly different direction than the natural "forwards" direction of the steering axle, it feels really weird. Obviously, they're supposed to be parallel, but it's possible to skew one or both of the axles with adjustable control arms. I made a mistake measuring one of my control arms while doing an axle swap and it made the Jeep steer really horribly. When driving over speed bumps as straight on as possible, I could feel one tire start to go over the bump before the other. The alignment shops didn't notice it or fix it, so I had to take out the control arms, measure them all and make sure they were symmetric. It made a big difference for me.

You probably didn't install your control arms as poorly as I did (frankly I'm amazed I was able to get all control arms installed with the lengths as out as they were), but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

 

[Midnsped]

I had a similar issue. Installed a new lift paired with Synergy tie rod, track bar, drag link with frame brace, ball joints, big bore xd2, and 37’ Yokohamas on beadlocks. Jeep was wandering and would occasionally give me the dreaded DW. I had the 2 alignments and tires balanced multiple times. I was not running a steering stabilizer. After I had my re-gear, I threw on a new steering stabilizer to mask the problem. After 750 miles on the gears, I noticed a leak on the passenger rear tire, so I replaced the rear axle shafts and elected to also replace the front unit bearings. No more wandering. I think I had bent flanges in the rear and bad unit bearings in the front due to a loose spacer pre lift install. The Jeep has relatively low mileage (60k). I hope that helps.