Steering Wheel Won’t Return to Center

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BrianJ

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Mar 15, 2018
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Texas, USA
I just completed a 2.5 OME lift on my 04 TJ and got 31 inch tires mounted and had an alignment done. The Jeep drives straight but the steering wheel doesn’t return to center. I’ve read this could be a camber issue but I don’t have adjustable lower control arms (didn’t think I needed them with a 2.5 lift). Would installing cam bolts fix my issue and are any modifications needed for the install? What else could be causing the problem? I’ve checked the other steering components and nothing seems to be worn or loose.


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You can't adjust the camber on your TJ.

This is a common symptom of insufficient caster angle which is what provides good return to center after completing a turn. A suspension lift can reduce the caster angle, though usually it's not that bad on smaller lifts. Do you know what your caster angle is? 7 degrees is factory but 5.5 to 6 degrees is fine for larger tires.
 
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As Chris said, it's Caster angle that has the biggest effect on return-to-center but toe-in can affect it too. But with only a 2.5" lift, your caster angle should still be ok. You sure your toe-in was set correctly? Do you have a print-out from the alignment shop showing all the numbers you can post a copy of here?
 
I was going to mention toe-in, but I would have to think that if an alignment shop did the alignment, they'd be smart enough to set the toe-in correctly.

Like Jerry said, a print-out of the numbers would be nice.
 
Could also be that they didn’t adjust the sleeve on drag link. After my 3” BDS springs went in I had to really fine tune that sleeve to center the steering wheel.


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sjalkian said:
Could also be that they didn’t adjust the sleeve on drag link. After my 3” BDS springs went in I had to really fine tune that sleeve to center the steering wheel.
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Good thought on maybe what's happening.

Brian, could you mean the steering wheel simply isn't centered when you are driving straight?
 
The steering wheel is centered when driving in a straight line, but doesn’t return to center after a turn. The wheel also seems to have a bit of a dead spot in it that wasn’t there before the lift. It rides great in a straight line.


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BrianJ said:
The steering wheel is centered when driving in a straight line, but doesn’t return to center after a turn. The wheel also seems to have a bit of a dead spot in it that wasn’t there before the lift. It rides great in a straight line.


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Interesting. I assume you have an adjustable track bar in the front. At 2.5” of lift you shouldn’t need adjustable control arms, but every Jeep is different. I’ll let the experts chime in on this one.


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The tire pressure is whatever the tire place set it at. I haven’t checked it, but I can’t imagine that’s causing this issue. Are cam bolts on the lower control arms a way to gain a little more castor without adjustable control arms?


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TheGanzman said:
Not enough caster is pretty much the culprit here - Sidebar: What tire pressure are you running?
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Possibly but my concern is the caster should not have been reduced enough with just a 2.5" suspension lift to cause this problem. Unless adjustable length arms were installed with that 2.5" lift and they didn't adjust the lengths properly... though installing adjustable length arms with a 2.5" lift is pretty rare.

And Brian if your TJ has the cam bolts at the front control arms, they can normally add or remove about 1.5 degrees of caster angle. Though cam bolts aren't usually installed on a TJ as new as your '04 is, the factory stopped installing them around 1999 or so. I would be surprised if your '04 has cam bolts installed unless a previous owner installed an aftermarket cam bolt kit.
 
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The control arms are stock. I replaced the track bar and sway bar links with JKS adjustable parts.


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This is what I got from the alignment shop. It might as well be written in Greek, but the shop said everything was within specs. Can anyone confirm? On a side note I did notice my track bar was a little loose. Tightening it down helped, but did not completely solve the problem.


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I would be checking the Lt ball joint or the left hub. That’s a lot of camper, something is worn out or bent. That should be more than enough caster to provide wheel return. With the left front laying in like that it could cause a bit of a problem with return. Is it easier to turn Rt? And is there more return when you turn left?

Was this thing ever hit? The rear axel is showing some pretty staring numbers for a solid axel, unless the guy doing the alignment never compensated the heads and or hit one after he set them up.
 
It’s a low mileage TJ (42,000) and it had a clean car fax report when I bought it with no sign of any body work so I’m pretty sure it’s never been in an accident. I don’t know enough about what the alignment should be to know if these numbers are a problem.


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So starting with the front. Camber should pretty much be equal side to side with a solid axel. You are 1/2 a degree off, the driver side is leaning in more at the top than the passenger side. That could be a bad balljoint, or a hub bearing or the axel is bent.

The front caster is fine, I wouldn’t be worried about that. The toe looks decent, they had the wheel turn d slightly to the right so you actually have a little more toe on that side and a little less on the left than it shows. But it’s fine. Maybe slightly too much toe in but I’m talking 1/6 or so. Not enough to cause your issue.


The rear camber should be close to 0 on each side. 1 degree negative on the drivers side is pretty high. It could be a bearing bad but that’s a lot. Your rear toe shows the driver side wheel turned in a decent amount. If the axel was shifted you would generally see one side toed in and one side toed out. Your passenger side is about normal. It’s not really possible to toe in just one side like that unless something is bent in the rear.

This is basically throwing off the rear thrust angle which shows the rear of the Jeep is “steering” the Jeep to the right.
 
Just wanted to update: The power steering gear box was bad and binding on the steering return. I found a local shop that could rebuild it for me. It cost around $100 more than buying a rebuilt gear box and installing it myself, but I didn’t have to wait a week for the part. The issue must have pre-existed the lift and tires, but probably made the issue more noticeable. Thanks for all the input.


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BrianJ said:
Just wanted to update: The power steering gear box was bad and binding on the steering return. I found a local shop that could rebuild it for me. It cost around $100 more than buying a rebuilt gear box and installing it myself
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You probably got a better rebuild than if you had bought a mass-market rebuilt steering box. Some store-brand rebuilt steering boxes get little more than a cleaning and a paint job.
 
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BrianJ said:
Just wanted to update: The power steering gear box was bad and binding on the steering return. I found a local shop that could rebuild it for me. It cost around $100 more than buying a rebuilt gear box and installing it myself, but I didn’t have to wait a week for the part. The issue must have pre-existed the lift and tires, but probably made the issue more noticeable. Thanks for all the input.


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That's great news - it sounds like the issue is fixed then?

Just a note - I watched a video (yes, I'm a youtube mechanic at times) where a guy replaced the ball joints on a Dana 44 while I was trying to decide if I wanted to tackle the job myself (or have it done while I'm getting the bearings and seals redone in the diff). One thing he commented on was the spec for the preload of the ball joints seemed to make the knuckles very tight. As I have zero experience in rebuilding solid axles / installing ball joints I don't know if there was anything to his comment. If you issue is fixed with the rebuild of the steering box, perhaps this is nothing.
 
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