Steering: how bad can it get?

cgotcher

cgotcher

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Bought a 2001 Jeep Wrangler, 4.0 yada yada yada...not my first Jeep but one that keeps me up at night. Steering was not good when I got it. (3-4 inch lift/new-ish). And 33-inch tires. It would go down the road at 65 and be ok, but I knew it needed some work. The first place said it needed new upper control arms and a rebalance of the tires. Ok, did both. (not working with the first place anymore) it didn't solve my problem. Then the next place said they couldn't align it because the ball joints, steering box, and track bar were screwed. After that, I fixed it: the Jeep wouldn't get above 45 mph or drive off the road if I let it. The service guy told me the "mud tires" gripped the road too much. Replaced them with an all-terrain tire to see. Nothing better. Any ideas?
 
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cgotcher said:
Bought a 2001 Jeep Wrangler, 4.0 yada yada yada...not my first Jeep but one that keeps me up at night. Steering was not good when I got it. (3-4 inch lift/new-ish). And 33-inch tires. It would go down the road at 65 and be ok, but I knew it needed some work. The first place said it needed new upper control arms and a rebalance of the tires. Ok, did both. (not working with the first place anymore) it didn't solve my problem. Then the next place said they couldn't align it because the ball joints, steering box, and track bar were screwed. After that, I fixed it: the Jeep wouldn't get above 45 mph or drive off the road if I let it. The service guy told me the "mud tires" gripped the road too much. Replaced them with an all-terrain tire to see. Nothing better. Any ideas?
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Give us good well lit photos (use a flash of the entire steering system making sure to include photos of the Pitman arm and both track bar mounts. The steering geometry commonly gets ruined by installing things like a dropped Pitman arm or dropped track bar mount.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
Give us good well lit photos (use a flash of the entire steering system making sure to include photos of the Pitman arm and both track bar mounts. The steering geometry commonly gets ruined by installing things like a dropped Pitman arm or dropped track bar mount.
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Problem is, I don't know where to start on this. Everything underneath is pretty new-ish (lift). I will take pics of the whole suspension and post. Thanks.
 
cgotcher said:
Problem is, I don't know where to start on this. Everything underneath is pretty new-ish (lift). I will take pics of the whole suspension and post. Thanks.
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We do.

They are all a track bar/coil spring/control arm system- and we’ve dealt with this over and over.

Low caster, alignment, angles, tire balance, connections and gears- you are on the right forum.

These guys TJs can go 70-80 with one finger on the wheel.

I won’t say where the other fingers are.
 
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Even though most of the parts are new we would like to see them all. A lot of people buy new parts but turns out those new parts are the problem to if they don’t have the correct geometry.
 
06TJ35's said:
Mud tires grip the road to much :ROFLMAO: Get the fuck outta here. Dumbest shit I heard haha
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You know it’s getting where the hardest thing to do in America is keep a straight face. I mean I just can’t get over some of the bull people are trying to pass on people.
 
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AndyG said:
You know it’s getting where are the hardest thing to do in America is keep a straight face. I mean I just can’t get over some of the bull people are trying to pass on people.
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Service writers don’t know shit. They need to get a degree or at least take a couple of automotive classes.
I was in a Toyota dealership one day and they had a costumer ask them if there’s a way to manually check tire pressure since they couldn’t fix the customers TPMS issue. The service writer said there’s no way to check. I had to step in and tell him there is and it’s called a tire pressure gauge.
 
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06TJ35's said:
Service writers don’t know shit. They need to get a degree or at least take a couple of automotive classes.
I was in a Toyota dealership one day and they had a costumer ask them if there’s a way to manually check tire pressure since they couldn’t fix the customers TPMS issue. The service writer said there’s no way to check. I had to step in and tell him there is and it’s called a tire pressure gauge.
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That is unbelievable.

I had a dealer let me leave in a 10,000 pound truck with no brake boost- They could have put bubble gum over the vacuum leak. Anything.

A parts counter kid asked me the other day what company manufactured the Corvette.

I’m noticing more and more even people at higher levels in their industry don’t know what they should know....

This isn’t going to change for the better- we are unleashing a generation of complete idiots when it comes to practical knowledge right now.

One of my clients’ teens called home from college- “hey dad, how do I use a can opener?”
They are about to spend six figures on this kid- this is why we have educated idiots.
 
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cgotcher said:
Bought a 2001 Jeep Wrangler, 4.0 yada yada yada...not my first Jeep but one that keeps me up at night. Steering was not good when I got it. (3-4 inch lift/new-ish). And 33-inch tires. It would go down the road at 65 and be ok, but I knew it needed some work. The first place said it needed new upper control arms and a rebalance of the tires. Ok, did both. (not working with the first place anymore) it didn't solve my problem. Then the next place said they couldn't align it because the ball joints, steering box, and track bar were screwed. After that, I fixed it: the Jeep wouldn't get above 45 mph or drive off the road if I let it. The service guy told me the "mud tires" gripped the road too much. Replaced them with an all-terrain tire to see. Nothing better. Any ideas?
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You're saying it doesn't drive right...what is it doing? Do you have a shimmy in the wheel? Is it lazy on center? Full on death wobble? Its tough to help when you don't post any symptoms and don't show pictures of the front end.
 
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