Modern Vespa

since i know a lot of you are car gururs, i have a question.

i just inherited a 1999 cheep grand cherokee laredo 4 x 4 from a really good friend. his dad owned it, it only has 34,000 miles on it. anyways, he's on the other side of the country, has no interest in coming back to get it, so he signed it over to me.

thing is, when drivin really slowly (like you would in a parking lot) the wheels shudder back and forth pretty violently when turning. if you're going straight and not turning, everything is fine. at higher speeds, you don't notice it as much.

cv joints bad? or somehting else? eh?

you have it locked in 4WD.
Nature of the animal...
250,000 miles on mine before I got rear ended..
Damn I miss that thing.
Towed 6000lbs from Delaware to DC...

Does it have locking hubs? The front wheels "locked" in 4wd would do that on pavement on my 1981 CJ7 (put over 100,000 on it), but locked hubs in 4 low is bad for the front driveline (ie breaks it if done too often/too much).

Should be shift on the fly,
Second lever on the hump ?

hmm. never checked. let me look and see if it's locked...

Are the locks on a 99 still actually on the hubs?

alright, there's a shifter lever next to the standard transmission lever.

it definately is not moving in and out all of the way from 2 wheel to 4 wheel drive (good call you guys). i put it in 4 wheel, and it was almost undriveable, the wheels were totally not in synch.

i moved it from 2 to 4 x 4 a few times, driving a while between each. it feels better now, but still not totally right.

what do i need to do to fix it? do you think it's just 'rusty' (it hasn't been driven in 2 years) or do you think something is broken?

i think maybe it is stuck between 2 wheel all the time and 4 wheel part time.

Bummer, the Cherokee has sealed bearings in front axle and I think 2-300
to replace- Mechanic...
Check linkage on tranny where 4wd shifter meets, might not be slipping into 2wd. Lube or adjust. First choice... Cheapest...

Did you read how to shift from 2-4? You have to be in motion, going slowly to get the gears loose so they synch up. You do *not* do it standing still. It'd be pot luck whether you could get the front/back to engage while standing still, which would exhibit the issue you describe.

It sounds like you've got a good part-time 4wd in there, which is a heavier duty drivetrain than full-time 4wd, imo. But learn how to use it, bcs you can really fuck it up if you try stunts like turning on dry grippy road surface, and can literally shear the driveshaft with the massive amount of torque load it's experiencing. Read the manual *first*.

shit. no, i figured it was like my rover and i could do it at a standstill. i'll try it whilst moving. RTFM i guess if all else fails, i'll try the 'lube it up' route. will report back...

Full-time 4wd is more convenient in that respect, and has the benefit of being something you can sort of "leave running." It's the kind of system that is inherently a little "slippy," which means it can tolerate differences in driveshaft rotational speed, such as one experiences when turning. But on the other hand, that means when you *don't want slip, you still got it. It's the classic trade-off between part-time and full-time 4wd. part-time 4wd...nooooo slip in the system.

You know...you could also have after-market manual hubs on it. Or maybe he installed an air locker on it. How "into" offroading was your friend's dad? Do the wheel hubs have something that looks like its got a little horizontal thing you could grab and rotate?

I thought he said he had the second shifter on the hump...

Sounds like you need drive train overhual

On my 95 I have only rebuilt the transfer case and I have over half a millon miles I put a new header on to because they crack

a drive train overhaul at 34k miles?

My 99 Wrangler 4.0 just blew a rod at 47k miles. things happen. get the drive train checked out.

FireJ you are lucky to have that many miles. my faith in Jeep has dwindled. And I loved and babied my Wrangler..

Sorry it's a Chrysler and therefore total rubbish, I'm not being very helpful am I ?
Billy-no-scoot

Yea, every time I see a wrangler now "BOOOOOOM" . I have to yell it to make myself feel better

If it sat that long I wouldn't drive it without at least greasing every thing up. When you shift to or from 4WD, make sure you're on something like gravel or snow. It puts a lot of tension and torque when you don't need it.

I hardly ever have to use 4WD on ours, but I take it off the road and turn it on so everything stays semi-limber.

It might be an old wives tale, but I've a firm believer that you need to use it if you want it to work.

I have seen a few bearings blow out on the 99's but perhaps a blowen seal did you check the gear lube levels?

Like with most cars its how you treat them or how they were treated , all I have ever had is jeeps except for one international Scout and I always found if you don't use the 4x4 every now and then you will have issues

For a '99 yes. The system probably needs some new grease and bearings. My '04 is 4x4 and has the hybrid style full time 4x4 axles and seems to do fine. My old Nissan pathfinder that was doing what you said the Jp is doing. It ended up being a vacuum line but I don't know if those jp's are vacuum operated or not.

This is good advice for many situations.

yep. most of the vehicle had been gone over and checked. i had just sold the jeep to another jeep enthusiast, and when he took the motor apart he found that one of the connecting rod bolt nuts came off. Just plain bad luck.

I'd still buy another one..

update: broken viscous coupler. $1,200 to fix. that sucks.

I totally said that! How many times did I say it was your viscous coupler? Ug. No one listens to me. I say and I say...okay, I'm FOS. I have no idea what that is. *shock*

I am glad you know what it is now. Sucks that it's $1200 but as long as that's all it is, it's still cheaper than buying one. Good luck.

well, i got the car for free, so i guess i can't complain too much. i was hoping it was more like a $5 fix, but bah.

apparently this is a known issue with 1997 through 2000 models.