Oops, missed one reply. What do you mean by "the pitman arm and inner tie rod arm on the right side now rolls from front to back"? If you mean you can grab it and rotate it, that is not only normal and correct, it is necessary so neither ball and socket binds when going up and down over bumps and when turning. If the person doing the alignment isn't paying attention, it is possible to have each ball and socket rotated a different way so that any movement during driving will cause them to bind.
Other than the steering damper, the track bar is the most common cause of that horrendous wobble. It had a very high failure rate on the Dodge trucks. I won't bore you with how to check it since you replaced it already. The Jeeps had less of a problem because if you look straight down, (or up), at the two control arms on each side, you'll see that they are not parallel. They form an "X". That prevents the front axle from wanting to shift left and right. On the Dodge trucks those arms are nearly parallel so there is nothing preventing the axle from moving sideways other than that track bar. Since the axle moves and the steering linkage doesn't, the relationship between them changes causing the wheels to turn. That results in very irritating wander but not the death wobble.
One reason the Jeeps can have more trouble is the "caster" is extremely high compared to other cars and trucks. Think of caster as the rake of the fork on a bicycle or motorcycle. The fork goes forward as it goes down. Higher caster provides more stability at higher speeds but it causes much harder steering. That is why they added power steering to offset that hard steering. Caster is also what causes the wheels to want to return to center by themselves after going around a corner. With real high caster, the wheels try so hard to come back to center that they overshoot and keep on going the other way, then come back again. Road forces on the tires perpetuate that oscillation. If you need another alignment, ask the mechanic to set the caster lower than specs to see if that helps. Caster has very little effect on tire wear. What little effect it does have will be reduced even more with lower caster.
Caster is measured in degrees. Most cars and trucks call for 2 - 4 degrees. Most Jeeps call for 8 - 11 degrees. Mercedes is the only other vehicle I'm familiar with that calls for that much.
If you have tires with aggressive tread or if they're larger or heavier than the original ones, you may need to add a second steering stabilizer. "Rancho" is one company I'm familiar with that makes the original replacement and the add-on kit.
One thing to not overlook is tight brakes. If you stop on a slight incline, shift to neutral, and release the brake, the vehicle should creep ahead on its own. You already know the wobble doesn't stop, in fact it gets worse if you apply the brakes at higher speeds. The same thing can happen if a caliper isn't fully releasing. With the vehicle jacked up you should be able to rotate either tire with one hand. If one seems too tight, feel the center of the wheel after driving 15 - 20 minutes. If it's cool, the brake tightness will diminish from bouncing down the road and is likely no cause for concern. If a tight caliper is related to the problem, the wheel center will feel hot.
I should probably ask too since you didn't mention it, you did have it aligned after replacing parts, right? Did they give you a printout showing the readings?
Saturday, June 30th, 2012 AT 7:03 AM