I have had my Jeep for a little over a year and am slowly building it to be a daily driver with maybe a little off-roading but nothing crazy. I am looking for some advice on how to make my steering tighter and to not shake when hitting some rough roads Minnesota pot holes I do not have a lift thinking of putting on the 2 inch spacer kit that came with the Jeep the PO didn’t put on. It rides on 30 inch tires and no plans on going bigger. I put a new motor in but the Jeep has just over 100k miles on it. It did just have an alignment done when the new rims got put on. Attached are photos of the steering components. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Loose steering
- Thread starter Scott D
- Start date
At the very least.... I can see you are missing both of your front bump stops inside the coil springs.
By the amount of RUST in those pictures; I would do a thorough inspection of the frame rails.
Is that leaking fluid on the steering a power steering leak ?
By the amount of RUST in those pictures; I would do a thorough inspection of the frame rails.
Is that leaking fluid on the steering a power steering leak ?
Frame has some surface but nothing bad. Not sure about power steering leak not making any whining sounds like when power steering fluid is low but I will check it out thank you. Any suggestions on bump stops?
Before throwing a ZJ steering upgrade on it, you should find out what's making it feel loose. If it happens to be a tie rod or drag link joint, fine, the ZJ upgrade will replace those and give you stronger parts, too. But what if you have loose ball joints, or bad track bar bushings, or bad control arm bushings? Or a bad steering box?
Get a helper and a bright light. Have the helper turn the steering wheel back and forth a little, while you look very closely at each joint. First check the ball joints, watching for any sideways shift which looks like the ball is no longer tight in its socket. There should be essentially no side to side movement, just a smooth pivot. Check the tie rod ends and other joints similarly. Most likely, something is shot and needs to be replaced. It could be your steering box too. Knowing where the problem is will help you to replace bad parts instead of good parts. There are lots of youtube videos on "checking ball joints" and "checking tie rod ends". A few of them are even good.
Watch several so you can see what you're looking for when checking those joints.
Get a helper and a bright light. Have the helper turn the steering wheel back and forth a little, while you look very closely at each joint. First check the ball joints, watching for any sideways shift which looks like the ball is no longer tight in its socket. There should be essentially no side to side movement, just a smooth pivot. Check the tie rod ends and other joints similarly. Most likely, something is shot and needs to be replaced. It could be your steering box too. Knowing where the problem is will help you to replace bad parts instead of good parts. There are lots of youtube videos on "checking ball joints" and "checking tie rod ends". A few of them are even good.
Watch several so you can see what you're looking for when checking those joints.
If you don't have a helper handy, you can place a camera under there, up close to a joint, on something stable. You'll need good lighting. Start it recording video, go rock the steering wheel back and forth slowly, and stop recording. Keep track of which video goes with which joint. Review the video on a larger monitor, and you can see if the joint is loose or tight.
Thank you I was already planning on changing the ball joints as my buddy/mechanic said they are bad.Before throwing a ZJ steering upgrade on it, you should find out what's making it feel loose. If it happens to be a tie rod or drag link joint, fine, the ZJ upgrade will replace those and give you stronger parts, too. But what if you have loose ball joints, or bad track bar bushings, or bad control arm bushings? Or a bad steering box?
Get a helper and a bright light. Have the helper turn the steering wheel back and forth a little, while you look very closely at each joint. First check the ball joints, watching for any sideways shift which looks like the ball is no longer tight in its socket. There should be essentially no side to side movement, just a smooth pivot. Check the tie rod ends and other joints similarly. Most likely, something is shot and needs to be replaced. It could be your steering box too. Knowing where the problem is will help you to replace bad parts instead of good parts. There are lots of youtube videos on "checking ball joints" and "checking tie rod ends". A few of them are even good.