For anyone that is newer to a TJ.....and you bought one with a lift, easy to look and see. This is a drop Pitman Arm
If the PO put a lift with this....4" or less (about....before anyone gets fired up about EXACTLY the rule, or "Rule of Thumb" I've learned on here. Take a pic of your steering linkage from the front like I did in my earlier post. If you draw a line from Track Bar mount points and a line down the Drag Link like I did. If they intersect like mine in the before picture, it doesn't seem to be good. I took it for "drives like a jeep" and frankly I had a 78 CJ5 with a V8 and 35's for 4 years in college, steered all over the road, so I didn't really notice this TJ being bad, ha.
I changed it to the stock, the lines look like what are in the after pic in my earlier post....whatever you want to call those lines on the operating planes.....is has the "optical illusion" of being parallel although I didn't plot the lines in Autocad to confirm, but apparently it's NOT parallel exactly, ha....and Bump Steer is gone. When I hit a bump now in the road, anything at all, my steering wheel doesn't jerk around anymore....really at all. Before, you come across some pavement seams and the wheel would jerk right for me usually, and you better be holding on good, ha.
So.....it's a worth while look, and a MAJOR change to drive-ability from my personal experience, for like a $50 Factory Pitman arm and a free loaner tool at O'Reillys to remove that Drop Pitman and replace......Plus got to hit the Pitman with a sledge to help it off......any time you get to hit something hard with a mini sledge is fun.
If the PO put a lift with this....4" or less (about....before anyone gets fired up about EXACTLY the rule, or "Rule of Thumb" I've learned on here. Take a pic of your steering linkage from the front like I did in my earlier post. If you draw a line from Track Bar mount points and a line down the Drag Link like I did. If they intersect like mine in the before picture, it doesn't seem to be good. I took it for "drives like a jeep" and frankly I had a 78 CJ5 with a V8 and 35's for 4 years in college, steered all over the road, so I didn't really notice this TJ being bad, ha.
I changed it to the stock, the lines look like what are in the after pic in my earlier post....whatever you want to call those lines on the operating planes.....is has the "optical illusion" of being parallel although I didn't plot the lines in Autocad to confirm, but apparently it's NOT parallel exactly, ha....and Bump Steer is gone. When I hit a bump now in the road, anything at all, my steering wheel doesn't jerk around anymore....really at all. Before, you come across some pavement seams and the wheel would jerk right for me usually, and you better be holding on good, ha.
So.....it's a worth while look, and a MAJOR change to drive-ability from my personal experience, for like a $50 Factory Pitman arm and a free loaner tool at O'Reillys to remove that Drop Pitman and replace......Plus got to hit the Pitman with a sledge to help it off......any time you get to hit something hard with a mini sledge is fun.
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