Adjustable track bar on - Steering wheel off ( Crooked)

Imposter71

Imposter71

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Joined
Jan 12, 2017
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Location
NC, United States
As I have mentioned before, when I got my LJ last year it had a bit of a shake. Happened pretty often when you went above 50mph and hit bumps a certain way. Since this is my first "newer" jeep and I don't know much, I started replacing things one at a time. Started with items that even I could tell were bad. I would repair one thing, then test and see what result it had. So far I have done front brakes ( rotors, calipers, etc) and replaced my worn tires and old rims with new BFGs and 04 Rubicon Moabs. This actually seemed to do away with the shake, but it still felt like it wanted to, just didn't feel really solid yet even though it has been working OK. After looking more closely at my stock track bar and stabilizer, I could see where the track bar bushing seemed dry rotted/cracked and the stabilizer was rusty and looked like it had seen better days. ( I have 120,000 miles on the jp) Sunday we replaced worn stabilizer, as well as the track bar with an adjustable one. We returned the stabilizer mounting location to its original position. In doing this I noticed that the "newer" drilled location when the PO had lifted it seemed larger than the original hole, like it may have allowed some movement with the mounting bolt. Anyway, we put the stabilizer on, measured to center things up and a installed the track bar. Drove home, still no shake and it feels more solid but it is too soon to tell really.

So the reason for the post is that now my steering wheel is off center by about a quarter to a half of a turn when I am going straight. My next step before I purchase anything else, since I am not shaking and I have new brakes, well balanced tires, and new track bar - is going to be an alignment. Figured I would do that, see what they tell me and how it rides, and go from there. Does that sound like a good plan? Am I missing something or is there anything else I should know? Will this straighten out my crooked wheel?

Thanks! Tom
 
If your axle is centered after having installed the adjustable track bar, you only need to adjust (rotate) the short adjustment link on the drag link to center the steering wheel. Loosen its clamp bolts and rotate in small increments until the steering wheel is straight during short test drives which are required. No need to retighten the clamp bolts between each short test drive, tighten them after the steering wheel is where you want it.

FrontEnd.jpg
 
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Do the alignment yourself. Jerry has a good write up somewhere. You only need to adjust toe.
 
And this is exactly why I ask questions here first. Thanks for the excellent info and the diagram. If I had a little more common sense or if I would have sat in front of the jeep and looked at it while I was drinking my " after wrenching" beer I might have been able to figure that out. LOL. It makes perfect sense now that you showed me what to look for.

I am still going to go for an alignment next. It won't surprise me if it needs some more front end components replaced but there is a shop that does lifetime alignments so I can pay once and get it checked/done, then if I have to replace anything else I can always go back.
 
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Imposter71 said:
we must have been posting at the same time. Thanks for the alignment link as well. I'll check that out before I do anything else.
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You can accurately set your own toe-in and straighten your steering in less time than it would take to drive to the alignment shop.

The highly technical tools you will need include one wrench, one set of pliers, and a tape measure. ;)

And there is nothing about setting the toe-in that can't be done just as accurately at home as can be done at the latest high-tech laser-guided alignment rack. Really. An alignment shop once boasted I couldn't have set my toe-in as accurately as they could so they offered to check it, hoping it'd be off so I'd feel obligated to have them adjust it. They were surprised/embarrassed as we both looked at the results which showed my home-grown alignment was dead-nuts on.

Read the instructions and look at the photos on my page, you'll see you only need to rotate the tie rod so the fronts of the tires are 1/16" to 1/8" closer together than the rears of the tires on. No protractors, no angle finders, no math... just a tape measure. :)
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
You can accurately set your own toe-in and straighten your steering in less time than it would take to drive to the alignment shop.

The highly technical tools you will need include one wrench, one set of pliers, and a tape measure. ;)

And there is nothing about setting the toe-in that can't be done just as accurately at home as can be done at the latest high-tech laser-guided alignment rack. Really. An alignment shop once boasted I couldn't have set my toe-in as accurately as they could so they offered to check it, hoping it'd be off so I'd feel obligated to have them adjust it. They were surprised/embarrassed as we both looked at the results which showed my home-grown alignment was dead-nuts on.

Read the instructions and look at the photos on my page, you'll see you only need to rotate the tie rod so the fronts of the tires are 1/16" to 1/8" closer together than the rears of the tires on. No protractors, no angle finders, no math... just a tape measure. :)
Click to expand...

Hey @Jerry Bansford I got new tires today and had them do the alignment. Since I just installed a new track bar. The guy told me he could set the toe but not straighten the steering wheel.

He said the if he straighten the steering wheel it would mess up the toe. I have the ZJ conversion and I set the toe and steering wheel when I installed it but I had the steering all apart so there wasn't much adjustment.

1 Why would he say that??
2 Is there any truth to it???
3 Can you explain why he isn't right??

Thanks man.


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1) He doesn't know what he's talking about
2) No
3) The tie rod adjusts the toe, and the drag link adjusts the steering wheel.

To center the wheel, loosen the adjusting sleeve on the drag link, and turn it until the steering wheel is straight.

tjsteering(1).jpg
 
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