Steering Box

[B52BUFF]

Well it has been an interesting few months. I have started working only to stop again a few months later and in the process thought about sell the old girl again. (Jeep not wife. Though if the price were right I'd sell the wife too.) In the process I took off the B52 Buff stickers and the JT4x4 sticker. Well about three days later my wife's van began to act up and continues to do so daily, and I once again had to apologize to the old girl (Jeep not wife) for considering selling her. If the van does give up the ghost then the TJ will once again become my daily driver as my wife (Still for sale) will be taking over my Volvo (Not for sale). Also I have started working again and therefore have money to put towards making my old girl great again.
So I have spent several hours getting things fixed on the TJ and have been putting a few miles on her as well. In the process I have been trying to figure out what I could do to improve the handling at highway speeds and I am currently looking into possibly replacing the steering box. So I started looking up what it would cost to replace it and I kind of realized that I had never really put much thought into how the thing works and what a good improvement would be, so naturally I sought my answers on the internet and have shared one of the videos with everyone in the "Recently Watched Videos" thread. Needless to say I got a great explanation of how the steering box works but haven't been able to find anything about what improvements I could make and their advantages or disadvantages. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[skibum]

Don't put too much thought into it. If you know it's bad then replace it. Only other improvements are hydraulic ram assist

[calvynandhobbs]

Chuck, what makes you think it's the steering box? Is it leaking, squealing, etc.?  Have you checked all the bushings on the front end of your TJ? How much lift are you running and are you running short or long arms? I know my XJ wandered and jolted side to side really bad with 4.5" of lift and short arms due to the angles. I ended up going drop brackets rather than long arms, which helped a ton. Have you checked ball joints, wheel bearings, steering dampener? What I would do is have the wife or one of the kids cycle the steering wheel while you look underneath for slop in some of the components. I replaced the steering box on my TJ, but I had someone else turning the wheel side to side while I checked things. I found that the pitman arm was moving up and down along with side to side and that the shaft it was supposed to be tight on was stripped so I had play. I don't remember what steering you have on your TJ and could have some tie rode roll or things along those lines going on also.

[B52BUFF]

Tie rod, drag links, pitman arm, and lower control arms are all new. I'll roll underneath and take a look for loose fittings. I have a 4" lift. I also have 35 tires. There just seems to be a lot of slop in the steering.

[calvynandhobbs]

Do you still have stock steering or do you have an aftermarket steering kit on it? You could have tie rod roll going on, which can make your steering feel really loose and make the Jeep wander. I had that issue on my XJ with aftermarket 1-ton steering. Steer the wheel half a turn to the right and left just to keep it going straight.

[B52BUFF]

That is exactly it. I feel like I'm over steering to keep it on the road. I have to pay full attention or I may drift one way or the other.  I have new tie rods on it

[calvynandhobbs]

That is exactly it. I feel like I'm over steering to keep it on the road. I have to pay full attention or I may drift one way or the other.  I have new tie rods on it

You need to have someone in your Jeep moving the steering wheel while you sit in front of it and watch for rotation of tie rods, tie rod and other pieces prior to the wheels actually turning. You should be able to see the steering shaft going into the box and if there is movement going into the box with nothing going on to the pitman arm that is where your play is and it is the box. If steering shaft movement and pitman arm movement move together you need to see if you have some other type of play. Here's a link about caster angle that also causes wandering.
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f8/why-your-steering-wanders-seems-loose-445430/

[B52BUFF]

Great article. I will take a look at that this weekend.

[Mr Rock]

Check and make sure your box is not loose on the frame! I have seen this a few times where one of the mounting bolts breaks and if you don't catch it in time the frame starts to fatigue!

[skibum]

Check and make sure your box is not loose on the frame! I have seen this a few times where one of the mounting bolts breaks and if you don't catch it in time the frame starts to fatigue!

But that usually only happens if you drive like Rock. 

[DirtyJeep92]

Another factor is the Trac bar if the bushing are loose or the mounts are torn like mine always seems to be it will feel loose as well

[Mr Rock]

Check and make sure your box is not loose on the frame! I have seen this a few times where one of the mounting bolts breaks and if you don't catch it in time the frame starts to fatigue!

But that usually only happens if you drive like Rock. 

Lol true, but I've seen it on more than just my rig!

[kirksjeep]

If you look at the tie rod and drag ling of a stock Jeep the angle between them is fairly minimal (10-15 deg?).  When you lift your Jeep this angle becomes greater and causes more steering wheel movement when you hit any bump in the road.  Some try to solve this with a bigger or dual steering stabilizer set up, but this just masks the problem.  Besides a track bar bracket to get your axle back under the center of the Jeep, I would recommend a tie rod flip kit.  Here are the ones I got:

http://www.goferitoffroad.com/products.htm

Finding the right drill bit was a PITA, but the steering geometry is much better and it moves the drag link further out of harms way.