Can’t seem to find a 03-06 lower steering shaft anywhere

Wjoe7890

New Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2021
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Hello All,

I have a 2003 TJ X with the 4.0 in it. Im looking at getting a new lower steering shaft as i have a ton of play in my steering and i believe this is my issue. Im running 33x12.5 tires, i can find the 97-99 steering shafts but having an issue with ones that fit a 03. Any ideas?
 
Are you talking about the shaft between the steering wheel and steering gear?
The lower shaft that starts at the steering box. With that said i may just replace both the lower and upper because the original has 136,000 miles on it.

Screenshot_20210308-113539_Amazon Shopping.jpg
 
I've read about the gear boxes wearing out due to giant tires and such. What do you mean by play in the steering wheel? Right to left turn before resistance?
 
I've read about the gear boxes wearing out due to giant tires and such. What do you mean by play in the steering wheel? Right to left turn before resistance?
When i move the steering wheel while the jeep is sitting still it moves about an inch each way. While driving to go straight my wheel is 90 degrees turned to the right. . My steering box is upgraded. Its a AGR steering.
 
When i move the steering wheel while the jeep is sitting still it moves about an inch each way. While driving to go straight my wheel is 90 degrees turned to the right. . My steering box is upgraded. Its a AGR steering.
It turns on you when going down the road?
 
When i move the steering wheel while the jeep is sitting still it moves about an inch each way. While driving to go straight my wheel is 90 degrees turned to the right. . My steering box is upgraded. Its a AGR steering.
How old is the AGR box? I had one and it was a problem from the get go.
 
The box you installed was their Mercedes replacement box correct? The same POS that I installed into my jeep.
That is a modified early tj style box where they weld and extra ear onto it.
The correct way to install that box, is to use the upper and lower steering shafts from a 97-02 tj
and use the earlier style power steering lines.
I know AGR says you can collapse your lower shaft enough to make it work, but I ran into problems with it.
I bought the AGR box because I didn't want to spend the extra $$$ for the PSC box.
I had nothing but problems with the box and ended up forking out the 900.00 for the PSC box.
 
The box you installed was their Mercedes replacement box correct? The same POS that I installed into my jeep.
That is a modified early tj style box where they weld and extra ear onto it.
The correct way to install that box, is to use the upper and lower steering shafts from a 97-02 tj
and use the earlier style power steering lines.
I know AGR says you can collapse your lower shaft enough to make it work, but I ran into problems with it.
I bought the AGR box because I didn't want to spend the extra $$$ for the PSC box.
I had nothing but problems with the box and ended up forking out the 900.00 for the PSC box.
Not sure, the AGR box was pre installed by the previous owner
 
Not sure, the AGR box was pre installed by the previous owner
Like I stated earlier, 2003-06 tj/lj's use a Mercedes steering box. I had to change my box because the pitman arm shaft snapped right off the box.

When I did mine, I purchased the AGR box due to the expense of the PSC box. You can also use a stock style 97-02 tj box and several Saginaw type boxes but it does require modifying the frame at the steering box attachment point. It's not a big deal if you have a welder and some basic fabrication skills.
I opted to use the AGR box for convenience reasons.

Anyway, when I did mine, I removed and drilled out the lower steering shaft, so I could colapse it enough to fit.
I also had to bent the metal line on the power steering pressure line to get it to bolt up to the steering box.

After my install I had nothing but problems. My jeep was wandering all over the place, I had play in the steering and some other issues. AGR originally tried helping me by having me adjust the box, which did nothing.
They then denied warrantying the box because I adjusted it, at their instruction.

I eventually ordered the PSC box, The guys at PSC told me I could reuse the later style steering shaft by modifying it, but to do the job correctly I would need the earlier style shafts and power steering lines.

I would take a look at the lower shaft and see if he drilled out the plastic pin and colapsed the shaft. Maybe you will get lucky andfind that he swapped to the early style shafts.

This is from the PSC website, hope it helps.

https://www.pscmotorsports.com/pub/media/pdf/TJ_SG400.pdf
Here is the shaft that you want, if indeed your shaft is bad.

https://www.quadratec.com/products/56113_0010.htm
 
Like I stated earlier, 2003-06 tj/lj's use a Mercedes steering box. I had to change my box because the pitman arm shaft snapped right off the box.

When I did mine, I purchased the AGR box due to the expense of the PSC box. You can also use a stock style 97-02 tj box and several Saginaw type boxes but it does require modifying the frame at the steering box attachment point. It's not a big deal if you have a welder and some basic fabrication skills.
I opted to use the AGR box for convenience reasons.

Anyway, when I did mine, I removed and drilled out the lower steering shaft, so I could colapse it enough to fit.
I also had to bent the metal line on the power steering pressure line to get it to bolt up to the steering box.

After my install I had nothing but problems. My jeep was wandering all over the place, I had play in the steering and some other issues. AGR originally tried helping me by having me adjust the box, which did nothing.
They then denied warrantying the box because I adjusted it, at their instruction.

I eventually ordered the PSC box, The guys at PSC told me I could reuse the later style steering shaft by modifying it, but to do the job correctly I would need the earlier style shafts and power steering lines.

I would take a look at the lower shaft and see if he drilled out the plastic pin and colapsed the shaft. Maybe you will get lucky andfind that he swapped to the early style shafts.

This is from the PSC website, hope it helps.

https://www.pscmotorsports.com/pub/media/pdf/TJ_SG400.pdf
Here is the shaft that you want, if indeed your shaft is bad.

https://www.quadratec.com/products/56113_0010.htm
Thank you, Ill check the old shaft and see if i can see that. Im hoping its not the steering box.