TJ pulling left & unrelated steering stabilizer question

[Westtown Willy]

Over the past couple months I noticed the TJ started pulling left, I’m assuming it’s not lift related as it drove straight prior to this time with the same lift. I was wondering if I bent something but I spend an awful lot of time underneath & haven’t seen anything. I still have the stock control arms up front & just measured bolt to bolt & the driver’s side lower arm is a quarter inch longer than the passenger side. Could something like that cause the vehicle to pull? Also, is it possible the ¼ inch difference is play from a shot bushing on the longer side? I’m asking this because I’m probably replacing the control arms this winter but if this could eliminate the pulling issue I may do that sooner. I was going to replace the arms with stock given that they've been working well thus far, but would consider adjustable if that's the only way to address the pulling issue.

Also during my inspection I noticed oil collecting on the bottom of the tie rod then looked up & the steering stabilizer was covered, pulled the boot back to take a look & oil poured out; it wasn’t anywhere above & it was all trapped in the boot so I’m pretty sure it’s hydraulic fluid from the stabilizer. I removed it & it still seems to have good resistance going in both directions but I’m guessing that if I put it back in it’ll just keep leaking out until it’s empty & completely useless. I then took a drive out on the highway, honestly couldn’t tell there was no stabilizer in there, Jeep drove exactly the same? I’ll be ordering a new one, just looking for the basic OEM version, any suggestions?

 

[Rob5589]

I would check front end alignment. Off roading can knock it out of spec. Check the tires for wear; feathering, cupping, unevenness. For a damper, buy the inexpensive Monroe from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C53XRK/?tag=wranglerorg-20

 

[Westtown Willy]

I would check front end alignment. Off roading can knock it out of spec. Check the tires for wear; feathering, cupping, unevenness. For a damper, buy the inexpensive Monroe from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C53XRK/?tag=wranglerorg-20

pretty sure it's neither of those, I've aligned it twice since this began with no change, and just put on new tires Wednesday with no change either...
I did order one of those Monroes though :coleman:

 

[JMT]

I prefer the Rubicon Express for a few more dollars. The Monroe’s work fine, but they often need a paint job right out of the box!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E0REY24/?tag=wranglerorg-20

 

[Westtown Willy]

Update to the situation, it turns out the driver's side caliper was sticking, nearly seized; when I jacked the TJ up that tire was harder to turn than the passenger side, & when I pulled the wheels off I couldn't move it at all & could hear grinding & see what was left of the pads right up against the rotor. Didn't want to mess around with trying to fix it so I installed new ones along with new pads and rotors. Also put new rear shoes on.

Problem is it's still pulling so I though maybe it was the brake line itself that had collapsed somewhat so I test drove it a few times & jacked it up afterwards but that wheel seems to be moving as freely as the passenger side so I'm at a loss to determine what could be causing the pulling, any ideas? Pulls harder when braking. Could it still be a brake line issue?

Here's some pictures from the job, I ended up with Centric Premium rotors & Centric zinc coated calipers with the carbon fiber brake pads that came with them, altogether $167.00 from Rock Auto. Besides the pulling issue the new brakes all excellent:

Changing this was a bit of a puzzle, but it came together

Really like this thing:

Put the new Monroe damper in too, it came with some funky long ass bolt to mount to the drag link & looked like it might cause interference with other components so I ended up tossing that & pulled the one out of my old one. Happy to get rid of that ugly ass white damper

Any ideas on the pulling issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tomtaylz]

Any luck with this? My LJ is pulling slightly to the left too, just enough to be annoying, and I need to start diagnosing.

 

[Westtown Willy]

Any luck with this? My LJ is pulling slightly to the left too, just enough to be annoying, and I need to start diagnosing.

yea, turns out after I did all of that stuff it diminished the pulling a great deal, last thing I did was a tire rotation one or two all-day trips ago & honestly I had forgotten about the issue until now. I think if I'm on the highway & let the wheel go it may still drift a bit but the pull was certainly more pronounced before all these new parts (all lower & front upper control arms, tires, front springs, brakes all around, new calipers/rotors & lines up front & the dampner) plus a couple alignments - I think it was just a symphony of little problems

 

[AndyG]

Just fyi , I know it's not the case here ,but you can bleed gas charged dampers and stop the left hand push issue they cause.

All the gas does is control oil foaming , which makes sense in a dirt bike shock , that moves a lot , but not a steering damper.