Steering Issue with your JT- some info for you

[Rollcast]

I have the same issue. Steering wheel must be 2-4 degrees turned to the left to go straight or else it will drift right.

Had the alignment checked and all was within spec for what can be adjusted. Rear toe might be the culprit.

Swap right rear wheel with left rear and see what happens. It could be an out of spec wheel.

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[ShadowsPapa]

I have the same issue. Steering wheel must be 2-4 degrees turned to the left to go straight or else it will drift right.

Had the alignment checked and all was within spec for what can be adjusted. Rear toe might be the culprit.

Yeah that one rear wheel is pointed off to the side.
I can let go of mine and it goes straight until road crown changes or the pitch of the road changes. (of course around here no roads are really straight anyway)

 

[BW Montauk]

Swap right rear wheel with left rear and see what happens. It could be an out of spec wheel.

Yea, I’ll have to try that to double check. Just had 35’s put on and still drives the same as the stock 33’s... unless they kept wheel positioning the same.

 

[BW Montauk]

Yeah that one rear wheel is pointed off to the side.
I can let go of mine and it goes straight until road crown changes or the pitch of the road changes. (of course around here no roads are really straight anyway)

I could deal with that. Lucky!

According to FCA, toe is within spec tolerance. I’ll see if the wheel is the culprit.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I could deal with that. Lucky!

According to FCA, toe is within spec tolerance. I’ll see if the wheel is the culprit.

I'd argue a bit with the FCA people. Drive wheels tend to toe-IN under load, or while driving so to have toe-IN on a rear wheel that is driving the vehicle is counter-intuitive. They should be neutral (0 toe) to a slight toe-out so that when driving they pull in and achieve near 0 toe.
Front wheels on rear wheel drive vehicles you want a bit of toe-IN when stationary as they will tend to pull out when being DRIVEN. You should not normally have toe-out on the front wheels of a rear wheel drive vehicle.
Granted it's not a lot on that chart - but it's the difference that counts, too. If one is toe-out and the other toe-in it would tend to dog-track if too far exaggerated.

I don't know if they'll keep those "specs" or not but knowing auto history and having worked in the field for decades, doing tons of alignments (granted, pre-1990 vehicles to be fair), I've seen companies change specs mid-stream. Good example is my SX4 - the TSM (technical service manual) came out early model year 1982 (so late 1981) - all of the alignment equipment companies, book companies like Chilton, Motors and others used that spec. They changed the spec a fair amount with a TSM supplement in late 1982 model year BUT all of the book companies to THIS DAY have the old spec -and guess what spec the alignment equipment makers use and publish...... yeah, the old spec. They had issues with the first specs and found things were much better with the later specs and yet to this very day, only people like me with the supplement know the correct specs for that car. And the alignment shops refuse to deviate from their published specs in their computers even if I show them the bloody book!

 

[4esop]

I was looking at this thread and noticed my cross caster alignment is slightly out of spec 0.6 vs +/- 0.5. I posted the alignment here : https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/loose-steering.16550/page-20#post-398047

I called a dealer and they said there is no caster adjustment? So what do you do if it's out of spec?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I was looking at this thread and noticed my cross caster alignment is slightly out of spec 0.6 vs +/- 0.5. I posted the alignment here : https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/loose-steering.16550/page-20#post-398047

I called a dealer and they said there is no caster adjustment? So what do you do if it's out of spec?

"Cross caster" or the DIFFERENCE in caster between left and right cannot be changed, period. Axle swap is the only way.
CASTER can be changed with different lower control arms but, for example, if you change the caster .5 on one side it changes it .5 on the other side too since you are turning a solid TUBE. You cannot change the left and right independently.
So if the difference should be .5 with one side being .5 higher than the other and the difference is much more, you can't change the difference, not at all.
Camber also cannot be changed - period. Only IFS allows this. Camber is built into the axle components.

So two things can't possibly be changed- CAMBER and the DIFFERENCE in caster, or "cross caster".
Caster can be changed, lower control arm change (but not to factory stock as those are all identical - you'd have to change to adjustable or lift kit arms)
Take a long cardboard tube - can you move only one end of it with the top of the tube farther ahead than the other? No. You can move both at once the exact same amount.
The front axle is a long solid tube for all practical purposes.

 

[DaveL]

Good to see this post.
Old memory. Friend bought a K5 Blazer (or Jimmy; can't remember) back in the day. Lots of problems.
He measured the wheel base, both sides. It was 1-1/4" longer on one side than the other. Right out of the factory.
He kept that truck until it was all rust....

 

[brianinca]

My suspension shop did an evaluation on my JTR the week after I bought it, since I was very dissatisfied with the wandery steering. They told me the caster was insufficient and the toe-in was excessive to compensate, and that alignment was in factory spec. "Come back in 10,000 miles!" I don't care if it's windy, constantly sawing the wheel to keep going in a straight line is not cool!

I swapped in the slightly longer (0.25") LCA's from the Mopar 2" lift kit and went overboard on caster, according to the spec. The steering is heavy on center, but CENTER exists! We just got back from 16 hours of driving over the weekend, and my sweetie emphasized how much of an improvement it is compared to the scary feeling before.

I don't get the caster being different side to side AFTER the toe was corrected, that's puzzling to me, but at HALF the total toe-in compared to before, it seems optimal. I feel like I'm going to have to swap back to the factory LCA's and let the steering go to hell in order to get the steering box replaced. Ugh.

"Cross caster" or the DIFFERENCE in caster between left and right cannot be changed, period. Axle swap is the only way.
CASTER can be changed with different lower control arms but, for example, if you change the caster .5 on one side it changes it .5 on the other side too since you are turning a solid TUBE. You cannot change the left and right independently.
So if the difference should be .5 with one side being .5 higher than the other and the difference is much more, you can't change the difference, not at all.
Camber also cannot be changed - period. Only IFS allows this. Camber is built into the axle components.

So two things can't possibly be changed- CAMBER and the DIFFERENCE in caster, or "cross caster".
Caster can be changed, lower control arm change (but not to factory stock as those are all identical - you'd have to change to adjustable or lift kit arms)
Take a long cardboard tube - can you move only one end of it with the top of the tube farther ahead than the other? No. You can move both at once the exact same amount.
The front axle is a long solid tube for all practical purposes.

 

[JET_83]

Been following this post and another one, didn’t wanna say much until I had a chance to really get a feel as to what mine was doing. I had a 9 hour drive home with mine after purchase (bone stock JTR) and I honestly wasn’t sure I was gonna make it, it was windy and the trucks were blowing me all over the road but as night came the wind and trucks died down and it was almost a dream to drive, still the occasional wander but wasn’t bad, hey it’s a box right? Next morning I aired the tires down from 40 something to 36 or 38 and it was much better but still wandered. Soon after I installed new wheels and 35” Ridge Grapplers, played with air pressure and got a little better. What I honestly felt was in ideal weather conditions it handled just fine, tracked straight as an arrow no wander, get it in windyconditions or semi trucks and it was very frustrating. After reading on this post and the other post and various FB ones I decided to have the alignment checked. See attachment below of the before and after, I also had them check the torquesettings, some were correct and a few took a half turn to torque. So the ride home from the alignment shop was ideal, steering took less input and was notably tighter and it didn’t wander, any steering input was instant. Did several miles highway around semi trucks and it was a completely different experience. I am100% satisfied with what was done that I could just leave it alone and drive it how it is however I am curious as to what airpressure will do so I will experiment with that, I also wanna see what a steering stabilizer will effect so I may try one as well but in no way do I feel I need one. I also wanna add that I used the alignment specs given on here and requested the total 20° toe, didn’t want to just get it close. Hope this helps.

That’s crazy, I’ve never been able to get my alignment from any dealership that precise before, everything being almost dead center, would love the same results on mine.

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