Little assistance please.

[boris0265]

A few months ago I purchased a Rustys long arm kit. Once I received the kit my family received news my wife has pancreatic cancer.
So instead of installing the lift myself (which honestly I wasnt that comfortable with anyway but I was going to give it a try) and now with this news I decided to take it to an "offroad shop" all the reviews I saw were positive so I dropped it off in Oct with the lift kit.
I finally picked it up this week and its all jacked up. Driving home from the shop it had death wobble a few times. It would happen over 60mph when I hit a bump. And would not stop until i got below 35. If I say under 55 it rode fine.
I knew just by looking at it things were wrong at the shop but after 3 months I just wanted it out of there.
Every bolt in the suspension was loose. Jam nuts on long arms were not tight, track bar bolts were loose, the bolts that held long arms to the axle were loose. The angles on the contol arms look off. It looked like they test fitted everything with the intention of going back and tightening everything up and just forgot.
During the 90 mile drive home i lost 3 lug nuts off the front tires and 2 more were almost off.
Nothing was installed correctly. Even simple things like swaybar quick disconnects were installed wrong and were different lengths.
They installed a sye and now it wont go into 4low i assme the linkage needs adjusted but I havent even looked at it yet.
When they trimmed the inner fender well they cut the washer fluid bottle some how it had a steady leak until it ran dry.

That doesn't even include the fact they used it as a shop vehicle and left me absolutely no gas. The jeep started sputtering as i pulled into the gas station that was less than a 1/2 mile away. I found receipts and papers from napa dated after i drooped it off and for parts i didnt need in the back.

So long story short i went through and fixed what I believe to be incorrectly installed and tighten everything down.

My question is short of going 65 mph and hitting bumps is there a way to check and make sure I cured the death wobble issues?

I attached photos of how I got it from the shop.

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[boris0265]

For anyone not wanting to read all that I want to know if there is a way to purposely cause death wobble. So i can see if I fixed the issue or not. Short of driving down the highway waiting for it to happen. Id like to take the kids in the jeep but not until I know i fixed the issue.

 

[Rob Mayercik]

Sorry to hear about your wife, man - what a horrible thing to have to deal with.

Ye gods, what a mess. I hope you've complained to the shop about this, that's horrible - am I seeing right that they simply sawed off the UCAs and left the stubs in the frame pockets?

You can try wobbling the steering wheel back and forth while the truck is stationary/engine off and watching to see if anything moves where it shouldn't - not enough to actually turn the wheels, you're looking for play. If it looks like everything's all right, you may be ok, but after 90 miles with everything as loose as you indicated (driven by you, not even counting what they used the truck for without authorization), I'm wondering if any of the mounting holes (particularly for the track bar) could have been "egged out" now, making proper tightening impossible.

I'm no expert but this looks like a grossly incompetent job, and it could easily have gotten you injured or far worse just getting it home (loose suspension bolts/lug nuts). It might be worth exploring with your credit card company (assuming you paid by card) about disputing the charge over their shoddy workmanship. These guys need to be taken to task over this before they get someone killed.

It might be worth reaching out to Rusty's and see if they can recommend a more trustworthy shop in your area you could take it to for an "expert opinion" and maybe help fixing the mess. Hopefully they don't point you at these yahoos...

 

[MrSimon]

Sorry to hear about your wife. I hope you all get through it OK.

Short answer is, not really. You can definitely fix a lot of the mess under there, which would help the death wobble, but the only way to know for sure is drive it.

However, you absolutely need to call the shop ASAP and send them those pics. If it's a good place they will apologize right off the bat and offer to fix it properly at no cost. Anything less than that and I'd go straight to a lawyer and have them write a letter demanding a complete refund.

 

[Victor S.]

Sorry to hear about your wife. I agree with Rob and Jordan. Contact the shop first. If no help go to the BBB and register a complaint against them. Contact a lawyer and see if there is any thing you can do. If it's any help with the sye. Disconnect the linkage from the T-Case, remove your rear driveshaft, rear yoke and rear tailcone. Once that is off move the lever on the T-case to 4lo and reassembly everything. Once the rear tailcone is back on you should be able to shift it back to 2wd.

 

[boris0265]

Thanks all. My wife is a fighter and taking things like a champ. She has her next round of chemo on Weds. Then she goes back for a new MRI and we hope it didn't spread.

I did call the shop and spoke to the owner he was very apologetic and took full responsibility for not checking the work being done in the shop. Said he trusted his guys and needs to do a better job checking their work. He offered to come pick it up and personally fix it himself as well as a refund or a new set of tires.

 

[boris0265]

I'm wondering if any of the mounting holes (particularly for the track bar) could have been "egged out" now, making proper tightening impossible.

.

Yeah, the track bar was egged out. I ended up drilling it out to a larger diameter and put a bigger bolt in to tighten it up.

 

[Veeb0rg]

Which shop did you go to? *pm me if you don't want to publicly name* I'm just curious. There are a few shops around here I can personally recommend as I've personally delt with them for years.

 

[MrSimon]

Thanks all. My wife is a fighter and taking things like a champ. She has her next round of chemo on Weds. Then she goes back for a new MRI and we hope it didn't spread.

I did call the shop and spoke to the owner he was very apologetic and took full responsibility for not checking the work being done in the shop. Said he trusted his guys and needs to do a better job checking their work. He offered to come pick it up and personally fix it himself as well as a refund or a new set of tires.

That's awesome. Good for him. I like hearing that a small business owner handled things properly. Sounds like you'll end up with a nice lift kit and some free parts!

 

[Rob Mayercik]

Yeah, glad the shop owner has stepped up to make things right.

Will keep my fingers crossed that your wife gets a good result on the MRI.

 

[Empty_Pockets]

Thanks all. My wife is a fighter and taking things like a champ. She has her next round of chemo on Weds. Then she goes back for a new MRI and we hope it didn't spread.

I did call the shop and spoke to the owner he was very apologetic and took full responsibility for not checking the work being done in the shop. Said he trusted his guys and needs to do a better job checking their work. He offered to come pick it up and personally fix it himself as well as a refund or a new set of tires.

Used your truck as a shop truck to run his own errands, and did all that work wrong....what kind of hack job cuts the one upper control arm in half then leaves it in there...I would never send it back there. Send it to a trustworthy shop and have them pay for it to be corrected.

 

[boris0265]

Ok spoke to the owner today. He is coming to pick up the jeep at my house. They are going to go back over everything replace and fix it all. Throw on a new set of tires of my choice have it all aligned and ready to go. Throwing in a new winch and then bring it back to me. If im not satisfied they will issue a full refund and pay a new shop I choose to make it right.

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[Victor S.]

That's very good of them. Hope things work out right this time.

 

[Rock2pus]

I am at a loss for words given what I'm seeing in those pictures. While I'm happy to hear the owner is going to try to make things right, there are so many things wrong with what was done there it borders on criminal.
Thats all I have to say. RAY CHARLES would have done better. Send the replies my way if you like, that is some of the worst work I've ever seen.

 

[xCWolf]

That's Unbelievable. I never touched suspension before I did my lift kit and it came out fine. I don't understand how a professional would screw up THAT bad

 

[boris0265]

That's Unbelievable. I never touched suspension before I did my lift kit and it came out fine. I don't understand how a professional would screw up THAT bad

Thats one things that odd to me. Like this shop has been around for a few years. All the local forums have great things to say about them so its definitely not a representation of their normal work or they wouldn't be around anymore 3 other really good shops are within a 20 min drive. So I just dont know what happened. The owner had no real answer either. All I can figure is the tech he assigned never worked on an XJ before? Maybe all he has ever done is JK bolt ons. Like his excuse for the swab bar disconnect beong backwards was well the steerinf stabilizer was in the way so i flipped it. I mean i flipped it correctly and had no issue making it work so I dont know

 

[unidentifiedbomb]

Wow what a nightmare for a shop to pass that off as acceptable.Sorry to hear about your wife, all the best wishes

 

[Anak]

That's Unbelievable. I never touched suspension before I did my lift kit and it came out fine. I don't understand how a professional would screw up THAT bad

The professional is in it for the profit.

The amateur is in it for the love of it.

It used to be that we had an education system that would teach people that words mean things. Not so much anymore.

My condolences to the OP. I hope the doctors do a better job with his wife's health. That is what really matters.

 

[boris0265]

My condolences to the OP. I hope the doctors do a better job with his wife's health. That is what really matters.

Thanks so far so good. She got sent to John's Hopkins in Baltimore to one of the top pancreatic Cancer docs in the country. So we have a plan and are working through it.

 

[Rob Mayercik]

The professional is in it for the profit.

The amateur is in it for the love of it.

It used to be that we had an education system that would teach people that words mean things. Not so much anymore.

Amateurs built the Ark, professionals built the Titanic.