97' Cherokee pulls to the right and has wobbling issue

[gkeough]

I have a 1997 Jeep Cherokee 2.5L 4cyl with 179,000 miles on it that all of a sudden pulls to the right when I brake and at times vibrates so bad to the point where it feels like the tire's going to fall off. Does anybody have any idea what's causing this? Thanks for your help.

[GeeAea]

Seized caliper would be my first guess on the pulling to the right when braking. Pull the front wheels. The side with the thinnest pads is the good caliper. I would say a kinked brake hose, but that usually results in a hard pull in one direction then another hard pull in the other direction. The reason that happens is that the fluid in the good hose travels in and out freely, while the kinked hose is late applying and delayed in releasing. So it's off when the other one is applied ..and applied when the other one is released. They're always going to be out of phase somewhat.

On the wobble, I'd replace the track bar bushing. It gets slotted/oval after a while and you'll hardly see it with normal front end checking for loose links. It's a beeatch to get the bushing out, but replacements are cheap. The cost of a new one (the whole trackbar) is about $140. The dealer doesn't sell the bushing.

Good luck!

[gkeough]

How can I tell if my track bar is bad?

[GeeAea]

It doesn't require much play in it. Just a little. Let me think ..it took me a while to figure it out on my own. I rotated tires..new steering dampener ..blah-blah-blah ..(fill in tearing hair out scratching head --etc.)

Push the body back and forth while watching the bushing. You've got a Wrangler frontend (or Wranglers have Chero frontends) so just look at the bushing located on the passenger outboard of the axle. Watch it while you mover the frame/body laterally. It won't move anywhere near what you would expect to cause all the rucus.

[gkeough]

Thanks for your help I appreciate it, I replaced the calipers and it seems to have taken care of the brake issue. The bushings on my steering stabilizer were bad so I have a new one coming tomorrow so we'll see if that fixes the wobble. I checked the bolts on both the control arms and track bar and both seem to be fine. I also checked the track bar for play like you said but I didn't really see anything, so hopefully the new stabilizer will fix it. Thanks again for all your advice and help.

[GeeAea]

I went through most of the usual suspects first. You might have gotten it with the stabilizer. With mine, the track bar bushing was about the only thing left Once I got it off, it was easy to see how it was worn ..but you would still find it hard to figure all of the havoc it played for such a slight play.

Hope the stabilizer does it for you!