Sloppy front end?

[DeadLastRacing]

Any other guys with +2 or aftermarket a-arms fell like they have a sloppy ass front end.......mines scary sloppy when I cruse down the road. Don't notice it much off-road but I feel like I get a death wobble and any minor turn of the handle bar, jerks the whole front end, deff not smoothly. I have the ASR a-arms with the heim ends and there is a small amount of play in the top ends (both the kid that bought them brand new and my lil bro who had a set new, said that they come like that?) I really need to get into it and do a in depth check but anyone else have this problem or know what I should be looking for?

 

[yamarider]

I never heard of heim ends coming that way from the factory, I would think they should be just as tight as a regular ball joint. Even with the problems I had with my Burgard arms I didn't have any issues like you're talking about, those used standard style ball joints, actually tie rod ends for a car.

Are the wheels aligned properly? If you have too much toe in or toe out it'll handle real squirrely like you're describing, my raptor was that way from the factory on hard surfaces and and reducing the toe-in helped minimize that, I can go 80 on the pavement and it handles as stable and predictable as my car after I made that small adjustment. I didn't use any special tools, basically I measured the distance between the tires at the front edge and at the back edge and adjusted the rods until the distance was the same.

I don't know what to say about the heim ends being loose, I never liked the design of them, even if you keep them lubricated you still can't keep the grit from getting into the pivot and tearing it all to hell.

 

[DeadLastRacing]

Yeah...I thought it sounded weird.....I'll check my toe, it might be a tad off? I (I think the play and slop is the ends!) Would two different tires account for the shakes? There made by the same company and are the same ply and style and size just one is a HD and the other is the norm.

 

[yamarider]

I'm a little confused now. Is the slop in the tie rod ends or ball joints?

I didn't catch that it was shaking. Is it acting like a car with a wheel/tire out of balance? When you're going down the road try to watch the tires and wheels and see if it looks like you have something bent or incorrectly mounted. There isn't any tire slime or other sealant in them, is there?

I don't think having a standard and an HD on the front would make much of a difference, the HD's are heavier though so maybe it could throw things off and if the diameter isn't exactly the same more weight will be on one than the other, and that can throw things out of balance some.

 

[DeadLastRacing]

Its .deff not the tie rod ends....they are brand new and the beefiest kind the make.....It gatta be the hiem ends? I opted to not go with any ball joint up front, hiem ends on all.

 

[boxhead]

Check your toe in and camber a few times. Exactly half way up the tire and right in the middle of the tread surface on both the front side and rear side. You'll also want to make sure your axle allignment in the rear is right too. It's easy to make errors so check yourself a few times. Your front tires should be 1/4" wider on the rear side of them than the front, and the sides have to be symmetrical. I had the same issue but it only bothered me on fire roads (after I bought the arms I set it up a little off and had to fix it). Take a look at the suspension setup too, the effect will be stronger if you have the preload set so more weight is on the front. I have ball joints on these arms so like you say it could be the heim joints, but it sounds more like the tie rods or axle allignment.

 

[boxhead]

Forgot to mention that you need to test it on perfectly level ground, those kinda mounded fire roads can trip you out sometimes because of the slight angles towards the outsides of the road combined with the bumps and such.