Road shock in steering wheel

Finally got back to driving my 59 cj5 and I notice quite a bit of road vibrations coming back up to the steering wheel. What parts of the system control this? so I know where all to check

I think the drag link is the only part that takes care of this but I'm not sure. I haven't really disassembled the drag link before but almost everything else is new. I have taken the drag link off each end before one at a time but I am positive I put it back on with the ball between the 2 cups but if internals are missing from a previous owner or if the springs inside are broken I don't know

 

What part controls it?............everything that is connected , from the steering wheel to the tires on the Ground.........If you have almost replaced everything , then perhaps by taking the wear out of the system has just amplified the vibrations............Lets face it by comparison Jeep suspension and steering in a 59 CJ with a Ross gear box is 1940 technology. Getting a decent ride out of a CJ is more about tire pressure and springs rates..............lots of metal to metal along the reach of the Ross steering from the gear box to the spindles..........maybe a steering shock absorber might help?

 

Possibly incipient Death Wobble, starting to show symptoms?

 

New tie rods. Kingpin bearings. Ross box rebuilt. Bell crank replaced. Everything.

Think they are 8 pack leaf springs and 7.50x16 tires with tubes and are wearing funny. Rims are factory 16 inch that appear to have had the center section removed, flipped and welded back in so now my valve stems are inside which is a pain in the *** to check pressure

Also my 48 cj2a rides much smoother and little road vibrations it's had everything replaced too.

Says in my FSM that a properly adjusted drag link lessens road vibrations

 

Agree with Patrick No offense but you tires look pretty bad.

 

The alignment was done 2 years ago and has had about 1000 miles on it since. They didn't have my cj5 in computer so they used DJ Specs from a much newer. They said they are all the same but I didn't like it.

Here is what it was and what they did

 

I don't know jack about alignment stuff but looking at these numbers I wonder why left front is so different from the right? Maybe I have a bent knuckle or something but I don't know how to tell what's bent and needs replacing

 

Now you are getting somewhere. Caster makes the wheels track straight ahead. Too littl caster lets the road shock have more of an effect on the wheel direction than it would if the tracking force were correct.

The camber is built-in to the axle. Something has to be broken to have a significant mismatch side to side. I expect the goofy camber will make your tires wear fast and strangely.

Good advice from Patrick.

 

I have remnants of a small shackle lift still on the back but I removed the front already. That's probably not helping caster

 

Caster........should be about 5-7 degrees


Duh, Thanks Tim..........OK ....how is that?...........you know what I meant.

 

Shackle lift on the back won't detectably affect the caster. Do you have lift springs?

And - please no offense - it's CASTER not CASTOR. Castor is a character from Roman myth, ie Castor and Pollux. It's a star in the Gemini constellation. It's the genus name for beavers. And it's a type of oil - castor oil. Caster is the wheel that you put on the bottom of your desk chair so it will roll around. That's where the suspension geometry measurement "caster" comes from, because it's how much the steering axis leads or trails the vertical axis, like a caster.

 

I disagree from personal experience. Especially on a short wheel-based vehicle. The longer the wheel-base the less effect it will have. The length of the shackle will obviously determine the effect also.

 

I think you meant camber on the left front is too low, but I heartily agree. I've found the sweet spot is 5-7 degrees positive on caster. Any more than that and the tires wear excessively in corners and you can get some high speed instability. Any less and they don't track very well.

 

CJ and DJ aren't the same at all. CJ's are really not adjustable.

And you might try a different set of wheels. Could be that cutting and rewelding job has thrown off the balance. Tire pressure can cause what you describe also.

 

The Service Manual states that camber is set at time of manufacture and can not be reset. The usual cause of bad camber is a bent axle end or steering knuckle. New parts must be used, because straitening procedures weaken the parts involved.

Hope this helps and makes sense.