serious wheel wobble jimny

hi ill start from the beginning , i went off roading last week and went down a track that made the jimny bottom out , after doing 80miles around the lanes and then driving home upto 60mph all was ok , then i discovered my valve was knacked on the rims i had , so i gave the tyre to my mate who put me a new valve on , he didnt balance the wheel after he did it.
then tuesday last week i went to the cinima in the jeep and i got an almighty wheel wobble when i go over bumps and potholes in the road and its that fierce i have to stop the car for it to stop .
now after this i checked the radius arms and found that id bent the drivers side , now ive replaced that today and just been for a drive and the damm thing is still doing it, ive checked for play in the front wheels and there is very little play at all , do you think it because the wheel wasnt ballanced when my mate did the valve???
if i cant find out what it is im going to scrap the jimny as it feels really dangarous:(
:dry:

If it starts up after hitting something rather than being speed related it sounds as if you have damaged something that contributes to steering damping, and the only things that do that are the Kingpin Bearings and the rubber seals on the back of the hubs. When you say that there is no detectable play in the wheels you did check this with the car jacked up didn't you?. I suppose it could also be a knackered shock absorber - have you tried bouncing the car?

Wheels out of balance tends to show up at a single speed any faster or slower then it goes away.

Whichever way it is not worth scrapping as any garage worth its salt would be able to diagnose it for you

Martin

does it at around 30mph , and only whan i hit a bump or pothole yes i jacked the car up and did it up and down and side to side , the only play is the steering moving and thats normal, the scrapping part i was mad when i wrote it:angry:


just jacked it up again , bothe wheels off this time and ive got slight play when i rock it left to right , but everything rocks all steering arm ect , ive just noticed the front panard rod is bent aswell , (happy days):laugh:

took it to the garage round us and he had a drive in it and nearly crashed with the wobbling it was like driving a clowns car with oval wheels it was that bad , but only when i go over a biggish pot hole at 35 to 40 mph , he checked everything like wheel alignment and camber , play in anything ect and he found nothing of the obvious , the only thing is ive got a very slight bend in my panhard rod but hardly anything .
if my king pin bearing is knackered what are the symptoms , there is no oil res on the innerhubs or any sort of play just what you would expect , im really stumped on this and ill have to resort in an expensive garage bill if the worst comes to worse.
ill try to do the work myself but if i get stuck the garage is always the last resort

If it was the Kingpins I would have thought any garage worth its salt would have picked it up straight away.

Perhaps you need to have someone watching from outside the car, perhaps from another car when it happens. Its a shame you do not live closer as we could get together and investigate further.

(a possible cheap way of getting it investigated is to put it in for an MOT!)


Martin

i got the other guy from the garage to drive it and i was in the passenger seat , and when it happened i looked down at the front wheels and they were wobbling all over the place just like somone was turning the steering wheel back and forth fast

ive now noticed that ive got black grease coming out of the back of the hub , on the ball bit , what would cause this????:huh:

If there is enough leakage for you to notice then there is something wrong. The knuckle joint has a small amount of grease in it which is to lubricate the internal mechanism. If the grease is leaking out then it has been diluted by either oil or water. It is most likely to be diluted by oil. The oil is leaking from inside the axle through the oil seal. This is because:

1. The oil seal is worn allowing oil to seep past the seal
2. The KingPin bearings are worn, allowing the knuckle to wobble and permitting oil to seep past the seal.
3. The axle is bent or the wheel bearing is shot. Again the wobble caused by these are permitting oil to seep past the seal

If it is water then the large rubber seal on the knuckle is letting water into the joint and then its leaking back out.

It it is axle oil based leakage then it smells real bad.

Martin

im going to do the kingpin bearings and the seal and take it from there , ill use the how to bit , will i need a bearing relese tool

Hi there,

Looks like you just need to give your steering knuckles a good overhaul as you say there's no play in the bearings.

My Jimny needs the same, there is a noticable amount of grease coming out through the seals onto the swivel ball on mine too.

It should go without saying that the oil seal in the axle should be replaced when the rubber and felt seals are replaced. Just take your time and keep everything in the order it came off, clean it all up and put it together with some gasket sealant in it to stop water getting in. Pack your bearings and CV's in CV grease and all will be fine.

Be careful removing the oil seal in the axle tube though as you don't want to damage the axle tube.

I've not done this on a Jimny yet but I assume it's the same as an SJ, which i have done both mine and a friend's now.

Yes you do need a bearing release tool and a small torque wrench to get it all torqued back together nicely. I have guessed with my SJ but will do it properly with this car.

You might want to replace the wheel and kingpin bearings and their runners whilst you have the steering joint in bits. The kingpin bearings have shims though and these can be removed to make them a little tighter. You'll need a spring balance to get them right with the new seals on.

The bearing tool can be got from Bits4Vits ebay shop for just under £44.00 delivered or twice the price at Suzuki's.

I've ordered my tool this evening and have to do my axle seals when it's warmer and I have to fit my fixed hubs soon too.

Kirky

fitted a new inner seal and kingpin bearingd to the passenger side and hey pressto all is ok , well i get a very slight wobble when i go over bumps but that might be my off sett wheels.
when i took the knucle joint out the bottom kingpin and surrounds had like a hard thick crusty type of grease on it and the inner axel drivshaft seal had deformed and split , i guess this was the kiddy causing me greif:woohoo: