I Need Help Identifying Front Steering Components From Previous Owner

BigYellah

BigYellah

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Please help!

Hi everyone! I just bought the Jeep about 2 and a half weeks ago, after thinking about one for years. I absolutely love it, it only has 73k miles, no body rust, and an unreal solid frame for the north east (which I just POR15'd after lots of thread reading!)... However, it needs some maintenance. I'm going through everything and fixing or upgrading to make it last as long as possible, and drive the way I want it to.

With that said I need a lot of help identifying what is stock and what is not. I've tried to read everything and learn as much as I can; however this has me confused.

The car came with a 2'' body lift, and what seems to be a 4'' suspension lift. I don't know anything about it because the PO did not do any of it. From my understanding he bought it as is at around 43K miles and owned it for about 2 years.

The steering is sloppy, and I want to fix it. I'm pretty good with mechanical work, but I can't figure out what the PPO (pre previous owner lol) did here. I want to replace the pitman arm, and track bar.. and when I have the money upgrade to the HD ZJ tie rod.

Everything says I need an adjustable track bar for a 4'' lift... yet this one looks solid? It cant possibly be stock, right? The car was wheeling 33'' tires. I would assume the tie rod and track bar should have been upgraded?

Thank you for helping me sort this out, I just do not want to order the wrong thing, or be driving around a ticking time bomb of a front end.
If you need any other photos or anything just let me know.

Front Steering1.jpg


front steering 2.jpg


Front Steering 3.jpg


Front Steering 4.jpg


Front steering 5.jpg


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Front Steering 7.jpg


Front Suspension.jpg
 
Steering appears stock to me. The typical upgrade from that is the ZJ tie rod, which is noticeably different from stock. Either that or the Currie system which is also beefier than stock.

Steering stabilizer is Rancho, so that was replaced at some point. Probably bought a lift kit and it came with it.

Track bar has quite the bend there to clear the front diff. That's either not stock, or someone heated it up and bent it by hand. If your front axle is centered side to side then it's the right length. But personally I'd replace it with the RockJock adjustable. Better joints, and it's designed for your lift height.

Why do you want to replace the Pitman arm? Whatever you do, do NOT get a dropped Pitman arm.
 
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WallyWest said:
Steering appears stock to me. The typical upgrade from that is the ZJ tie rod, which is noticeably different from stock. Either that or the Currie system which is also beefier than stock.

Steering stabilizer is Rancho, so that was replaced at some point. Probably bought a lift kit and it came with it.

Track bar has quite the bend there to clear the front diff. That's either not stock, or someone heated it up and bent it by hand. If your front axle is centered side to side then it's the right length. But personally I'd replace it with the RockJock adjustable. Better joints, and it's designed for your lift height.

Why do you want to replace the Pitman arm? Whatever you do, do NOT get a dropped Pitman arm.
Click to expand...
Okay, interesting. Great spot on the bend, I had no idea. I can jiggle the track arm, from the driver side so it doesn't seem to be helping my sloppy steering problem. I was thinking about an adjustable track arm, so thank you for the suggestion. I've seen a lot of JKS and Currie on here, but both aren't exactly cheap.

I guess I meant to say the drag link end? (Moogs Es 3096L) it seems and looks pretty blown out, so I'm hoping that will help will help with slop too. Other tie rod ends seem very solid, but once I have the money I will definitely upgrade to the ZJ setup.

Thanks again for the help, I'm eager to learn, but still pretty raw to all of this. This forum has been an absolute blessing
 
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