Good Morning guys and gals,

So the long and short... Last weekend I replaced the worn, original steering dampner and tie rod ends on my 1998 with 152,000 miles on it. The job was painless enough as those things go (though in retrospect I would have replaced the rod itself, too for sake of ease) but after I was finished, I noticed wheel hop on my test drive once I hit a few bumbs nearing highway speed. I should also note that just that morning, I had 4 new/used Goodyear Wranglers put on. I stepped the size up to a 255/70-16.

My initial thought was that with the new dampner, I am just feeling more of the worn, original shocks but the car shakes so much when experiencing bounce, I started thinking otherwise. So,yesterday after reading several posts on various sites, I read a guys post that claims if I moved the position of the steering wheel with the car off and tie rod disconnected, that I may have introduced air into the power steering system.

Has anyone ever herad of this?
If you have experienced wheel hop and or have replaced these parts on your own, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

With that being said, Id also entertain recomendations for new shocks, springs, suspension kits etc. Thanks guys!

 

I have replaced those parts as part of my quest to deal with the Death Wobble, as I could not keep enough Depends in stock. The steering damper's job is to keep the steering wheel from jerking violently when you hit a rock on the trail and breaking your thumbs. A new one may mask suspension problems for awhile, but that's about all. While you may need an alignment after replacing other parts, I don't believe air in power steering cicuit would cause what you describe. But there are other parts, like bushings, that may be involved. Search our forum for "Death Wobble".

 

If you have "wheel hop", I'd suspect the shocks are shot... Especially if you really have original shocks on a 1998 with 152K miles! (My OEM shocks only lasted about 20K or 25K miles, and some folks said I was lucky to get that much out of them.) When my OEM shocks went bad, it was pretty obvious... it was as if one or more of them completely locked up internally and the truck had no suspension what-so-ever at one or more corner. I was on the road at highway speeds and felt it immediately.

I replaced with Bilsteins many, many years ago (all four shocks and the dampener at the same time)... And haven't had to worry about them since (1997 with about 87,000 miles on it). They might be due for replacement soon, but aren't critical by any means.

A little later I replaced the badly sagging OEM springs, too. I put in Old Man Emu (OME) heavy duty, which lift the car about 1" over the stock height. If you are still running original springs (along with the shocks), your car is bound to be "lowridding". I'd be surprised if the tires were rubbing. The OME springs hold up far longer than the OEM... But if you get them, be careful with the install.... the rear are interchangeable with each other, but the front springs are left and right specific (don't ask me how I know).

After installing those, I found it very important to get a good, accurate alignment. Perhaps due to the increase in ride height. (One place did a crap job, but another where the owner of the shop owns & drives a Disco did it right).

Another thing was tire/wheel balance. I had to have that redone. The shop that installed one set of tires did a lousy job and for a while I was thinking the tires were bad. They rebalanced, didn't do much good until another shop straightened out the balance on all of them. Those big, heavy tires and wheels need to be properly balanced! Last Spring when it was time for a new set of tires, the second shop that corrected the previous balance and alignment problems got my business, even though they tend to be a little more expensive, and they seem to have done a very good job.

I have not yet had to change out the tie rod ends, but probably will need to sometime soon.

Definitely take a look at your bushings... At this age and mileage, there's a good chance you need to replace them, though it sort of depends upon driving conditions too. It's another thing I haven't had to do yet, but might soon (I have a complete set of "soft/off-road" urethane bushings squirreled away, ready to do the job. The "soft/off-road" urethane are similar in hardness to the stock rubber. I've used harder urethane in sports cars... but won't use them in a truck!)

Recently I also went with a new set of Goodyear Wranglers (Silent Armor, the LT version so I can run them at higher pressures when towing), though I chose to upsize to 245/75-16 instead. Those replaced a set of 7 or 8 year old Pirelli Scorpions in the same size, which probably still had about half their tread left, but had a lot of cracking due to age and weathering, enough to make me nervous on the highway and towing with them. I would have bought another set of the Scorpions if I could. The Pirellis are no longer made (they do still make a Scorpion, but it's a new design with a radically different tread pattern now).

When I first replaced them, the Scorpions were pretty noisy and steering was sort of squirrely... plus there was some uneven wear. Turned out it was alignment and balance issues (as mentioned above). Those tires were noisy, too, when the alignment and balance were out of whack. They ran much quieter when that was corrected.

The Wranglers run smooth and there's no "hop", seem to give good traction though I haven't been in any snow with them yet... however they aren't as quiet running as I expected for a tire with "Silent" in it's name. But I think it's probably time for another alignment (the roads around here are in pretty sad shape.... the city says they don't have the money to repair to fix... Tho they managed to build a $1 billion airport expansion, half billion $ city hall, a bunch of new fire stations - half of which are closed, a bunch of new libraries - half of which are closed and the other half operating on shortened hours due to budget constraints, and sink over $100 million into a police sub-station - which has remained closed due to budget restraints for over a year now... but that's another subject... getting down off my soap box now).

 

Thanks for the input guys. I have already done some research on the OME shocks, they look solid and I know OME from back in my Jeep days. I guess Ill be switching those out sometime in the next coupla weeks, Ill most likely get her aligned in the next couple days.

I dont see myself going far enough to replace all of the bushings right now. But who knows, maybe sometime down the line. As of right now I have another issue to deal with. I just got back from going to lunch with and wouldnt you believe it, the power seats just all of a sudden stopped working. SSo I ran some diagnostics and found the most peculiar set of symptoms.

Neither seat works when the doors are closed. With the drivers side door opened, the drivers side seat works just fine. As soon as the door switch is depressed, the seat completely stops working. I could not get the passenger seat to work at all, no matter what I tried. Both seats and all other electrical works 100% normal, except for the radio and speakers, which was monkeyed up by some hacker before I owned her.

 

Look for play in the panhard rod bushings. Also check for play in your swivel pin bearings. Those were the two major sources of my death wobble.

 

You replaced the TRE's on the track rod, correct? Did you measure the distance from TRE center to center before removal? You may have have the tires toe-in or toe-out if the overall track rod length was adjusted with the new TRE's. Track rod length from TRE center to center should be 1230mm, about 48 7/16".

 

This is why I dont replace anything, because the other parts get jealous. LOL!!

 

Can't say I've ever seen or heard of shocks and springs causing 'wheel hop'.
Very unlikely. Most likely it is worn bushings or a change in alignment from the new parts.

The reason you needed an alignment after installing your springs was probably because the previous alignment was done on old saggy springs. Makes a huge difference.