what seems to be excessive body roll

[Joel Wilson]

I just had all 4 ball joints and the entire tie rod replaced. So that solved the hound dog hunting when you hit the brakes thing. So me and the wife took the dogs and the grandaughter and headed out west to let the Jimmy stretch its legs a bit and to see how far up the mountain we could actually go since the fires out west. We havent' been on this road in the Jimmy in a very long time but it just seemed like there was excessive body roll. I also noticed the rear tires were rubbing a bit. I can't tell if the rear bushings are good or not, but the front sway bar bushings are toast and the front leaf spring bushings are cracked pretty bad. Would this cause the body roll? I wasn't exactly easy on the throttle and M2 and M4 out west are pretty windy and a decent climb. Weight wise, I was probably pushing 7000 lbs with everyone in it plus all my tools. I've got Skyjacker add a leafs and Monroe load adjusting coil over shocks all the way around. Any help would be appreciated.

Joel
norcal

 

[Bent77]

Yes those things will do that for sure. Additional passengers and tools also change the ride.
Bushings aren’t super fun, but worth changing

 

[jkroberts]

The extra weight doesn't help especially if your used to driving solo. If replacing the front swaybar bushings doesn't do it, you can always try adding a rear adjustable swaybar.

 

[Blue85]

Probably time well spent to check out the whole front suspension and steering. What I mean by that is to watch for the springs, frame, etc to move around while somebody else steers the tires side to side (in park, of course). Then jack it up by the frame and put a pry bar on the upper shackle bushings to make sure they're still intact. Make sure all the spring bushing bolts are tight and no play in tie rod ends, etc. If the springs and shackles aren't mounted tight the springs can move side to side and add to the body roll and unstable feeling in corners. Sometimes you still find people suggesting that the bushing bolts SHOULD be loose (to help the suspension flex), but all that does is wear the parts out and make it wander around on the road. While the body roll may still be worse than a modern IFS rig with dual sway bars, once everything is in the condition it was designed to be in a stock height blazer should be quite manageable on the road.

 

[Joel Wilson]

Probably time well spent to check out the whole front suspension and steering. What I mean by that is to watch for the springs, frame, etc to move around while somebody else steers the tires side to side (in park, of course). Then jack it up by the frame and put a pry bar on the upper shackle bushings to make sure they're still intact. Make sure all the spring bushing bolts are tight and no play in tie rod ends, etc. If the springs and shackles aren't mounted tight the springs can move side to side and add to the body roll and unstable feeling in corners. Sometimes you still find people suggesting that the bushing bolts SHOULD be loose (to help the suspension flex), but all that does is wear the parts out and make it wander around on the road. While the body roll may still be worse than a modern IFS rig with dual sway bars, once everything is in the condition it was designed to be in a stock height blazer should be quite manageable on the road.

Copy that. I think I will just replace all the bushings all the way around with the exception of the body bushings for now. Replacing the ball joints and tie rod ends helped quite a bit. Expensive but worth it. Hopefully I can get ahold of Offroad designs about his sway bar disconnect system. I am wondering if the add a leafs that I have on will be enough of a lift to warrant using his system. Skyjacker claims a 1.5 to 2 " lift and ORD needs at least a 2" lift to use his system. I really want to use his stuff as everything else I have gotten from them has been built for abuse.

Joel
norcal