I have a 1997 jeep wrangler and it shakes?

real simple. This is a condition known to Jeepers as "death wobble." It's when the front track bar bushing ends wear out, causing slop in the steering system. When that happens, you get the death wobble.

As you have already found out, Death Wobble, the horrible front end vibration that starts when one wheel (usually the right) hits a bump around 40~50mph, is the worst possible downside to having a coil-sprung vehicle with a track bar setup. Vehicles affected by this design are the Jeep Cherokee XJ, the Grand Cherokee ZJ and WJ, Jeep Wrangler YJ, TJ, and JK, and also include Ford and Dodge trucks and early Ford Broncos. Death Wobble is also extremely difficult to try to diagnose, because it is actually caused by slop in the entire steering system as a whole, not by one component. To diagnose correctly, your mechanic needs to look for "play" everywhere there is something that could have "play" in it. It's time consuming, and downright dangerous while you are in "test phase", trying to exorcise this demon from your Jeep or Truck.

The thing I tell people to start with is a visual inspection. Spend 10 minutes under the front end and visually inspect each one of the steering components for shiny steel, which would be indicative of metal that's moving around when it's not supposed to be. Pay careful attention to the track bar (also called a Panhard Bar Internationally, as well as a tracbar, trackbar, and trak-bar), as it's usually the culprit in most cases. If any of your bolts are even the least bit loose, Death Wobble can manifest itself and make your life a living hell.

If everything looks to be "normal" and you've checked bolt tightness on the track bar, the next thing to do is to start with a front end alignment, making sure that caster is set correctly as well as toe-in. If you have been offroading and have bent your tie rod even slightly, it'll throw off the alignment. Plus, it's only $40 or so. DO NOT let the alignment shop talk you into a four-wheel alignment, as this is only useful on vehicles with independent rear suspension in my experience, and since there are no adjustment points in the rear of a live-axle vehicle ANYWAY, you're just paying for a service that you won't get anything out of. If you have a lifted vehicle, make sure that the alignment shop you choose knows the variant specifications for lifted vehicles, and that they do NOT set it to the "default/stock" settings. A good quality alignment shop familiar with 4x4 vehicles will know these settings, and a poor quality shop will likely tell you that it doesn't matter whether it's lifted or not...they still use the same specs. Hang up the phone and call the next shop, if so.

If you are *certain* that the front end alignment that it's set correctly and you've not replaced any other front end components recently that may have caused the oscillation to begin, I tell people the next most suspect thing is the factory front track bar. Over time, the tie rod end on the upper portion of the Panhard or track bar (some applications like the WJ Grand Cherokee, the Ford and the Dodge have a rubber bushing instead) develops "play" in it, and the same goes for the lower end, which has a rubber or polyurethane isolator bushing in it, which allows the Dreaded Death Wobble oscillation to occur.

Aftermarket trackbars generally come with urethane bushings that allow much less "play" in the way of movement than the factory rubber bushings do. The problem with most aftermarket track bars for the Jeep is that they also come with either a heim joint, Johnny joint, or tie rod end on the upper end of the bar, which works fine for a while, but wears out over time, leaving you right back where you started, with a mess in your shorts, a temporarily deaf right ear from the wife screaming, and the frustration with your entire rig in general...NOT good.

That's about all you can tell without taking things apart. Drop the oil pan and shake the rods. If #6 is loose, you caught it before it blows out the side of the engine, but the crankshaft may be scored. Let's not start there. See what the spark plug looks like- is some of it missing? Use some injector cleaner- it couldn't hurt. Piston slap will occur in all the pistons and probably won't trip the malfunction light. That will be loudest when the engine is cold. Check the compression to try and guess if there's a bad valve in that cylinder. The night you raced against that Mustang and redlined is when you bent a valve.

Had Death Wobble on my 2000 TJ when I first got it. Tried balancing the tires, that helped some, but was not a fix. Replaced the steering dampener, that also helped, but was not a total cure. Replaced both front tires and it was gone. Now I have the tires balanced and rotated regularly and keep the front-end aligned. So far so good.

maybe a bent rim. i would have the balance RECHECKED. i've already bought new tires and had them balanced only to find out it wasn't done right. i took the car back and the tires were recheck (rebalanced and then the shaking stopped. it's normally one of those two things that usually occur between 50 and 70 m.p.h. when was the last time you had a front end alignment?

get a certified repair shop too check that stuff out, after having the balance rechecked.

sometimes those balance weights fall off And that could be the problem. i personally after 55 years of driving have never found it to be anything else.

good luck to ya

When you have the tires rebalanced... have them put the weights on the inside of the rim and not the outside. It corrects that wobble your describing.

the first thing that comes to mind is tire pressure make shure that your front tire pressuer is slightly greater than the back and that it is equal on right and left sides if it not that your shocks are gone