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At my wit's end with the steering, Whats next?

bastage

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Short of going Hydro I don't know what else to do with the craptastic ass steering on my truck. I have had it since last April & am just shy of 5000 miles. Everything is heavily modified so I am sure that has a lot to do with it.

Issue is that the steering is extremely loose & the steering wheel goes off center after almost anything with bumps.

Currently it has the Mopar Steel box, Synergy sector shaft brace, Steersmarts Tie Rod & Drag link, Clayton Track Bar. Its sitting on the Clayton 2.5" lift with Fox Shocks & 37" Patagonia's.

Since it was last in the shop & having everything perfect I have a few hundred miles on road & zero off-road miles. It has gradually over the last couple hundred miles gotten loose & I was already feeling the annoyance of the steering. Last draw is that today I drove on a bumpy snow covered road (soft snow yesterday that got driven through & then froze hard over night). Was only about 1/4 mile long & nothing that an average car or cute ute wouldn't do just fine. Never went above about 5 mph on it & when I turned back onto plowed road the steering wheel was noticeably off & within the next 1/4 mile the service traction control light came on again.

I am not looking for sports car steering, but this is freeking ridiculous. The steering has been doing this crap since new (though I went to 35's almost immediately). Given that everything has been upgraded at this point I dont know what else to do about it.

I was planning to dump a couple thousand into it with my tax returns (gotta love an unexpected tax return), but I was looking to do Brakes & some more body armor. But this is going to keep me from being able to do any real road trips in it & is starting to feel unsafe with its inconsistency.
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Darkamek

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Maybe get under your Jeep and recheck torque on the bolts and feel if anything might be loose. It looks like the only thing you haven't upgraded is your steering stabilizer. Not that you should have to upgrade that part. You could take the steering stabilizer off and compress and decompress it and make sure that it is working as intended. My wife's JL had a recall on her stabilizer. When we went down the road and hit a bump the steering went all kinds of wonky until it was replaced.

You could also rotate the tires or get them rebalanced in-case they are out of whack. Something sure seems kiddywampas in your steering though.
 
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bastage

bastage

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Maybe get under your Jeep and recheck torque on the bolts and feel if anything might be loose. It looks like the only thing you haven't upgraded is your steering stabilizer. Not that you should have to upgrade that part. You could take the steering stabilizer off and compress and decompress it and make sure that it is working as intended. My wife's JL had a recall on her stabilizer. When we went down the road and hit a bump the steering went all kinds of wonky until it was replaced.

You could also rotate the tires or get them rebalanced in-case they are out of whack. Something sure seems kiddywampas in your steering though.
Getting under it right now aint going to happen. Too Cold with no garage it will fit in. And I missed that part. Has a Fox stabilizer on it. The middle one with through shaft
 

Darkamek

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Well it wouldn’t be too expensive to have all of the tires rebalanced. But I don’t think that will cure it.
 

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Put a go pro under there, drive real slow, and turn the wheel left and right slowly. play it back in slow motion if neded, look to see if any one component is turning before the others. May indicate where the sloppiness feeling comes from, something not being fully in step connected, like some joint is ovaled off.
 

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@bastage Check the Pittman arm nut that came with the sector shaft brace. The set screw that keeps it in place backed out on mine and caused a very similar situation. I installed the sector shaft brace myself and I guess I didn't get everything torqued correctly. I took it into the shop and they found the set screw loose. They tightened the Pittman arm nut and set screw, then applied some loctite and torqued it. I haven't had any issues since.
 
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bastage

bastage

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@bastage Check the Pittman arm nut that came with the sector shaft brace. The set screw that keeps it in place backed out on mine and caused a very similar situation. I installed the sector shaft brace myself and I guess I didn't get everything torqued correctly. I took it into the shop and they found the set screw loose. They tightened the Pittman arm nut and set screw, then applied some loctite and torqued it. I haven't had any issues since.
Ill have to get it into a warm spot & check that. The sector shaft was one of the the first mods I did so that would of been happening pretty early on.
 

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May be an unpopular opinion but back down on the tire size a bit. Maybe go to 35/12.5 or even 315/70.

Over the last year or so ive been on this forum i think ive seen more threads where 37’s are the problem and folks spend thousands to updgrade in support of them. New steering linkage / geometry correction / stabilizers / ect...even regearing just to feel normal again with day to day driving. They certainly look cool but as far as im concerned unless they’re absolutely necessary for your JTs use, they may be the issue.

Or just trade it in as is and get a newer year that may not have the same gremlins.
 
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bastage

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May be an unpopular opinion but back down on the tire size a bit. Maybe go to 35/12.5 or even 315/70.

Over the last year or so ive been on this forum i think ive seen more threads where 37’s are the problem and folks spend thousands to updgrade in support of them. New steering linkage / geometry correction / stabilizers / ect...even regearing just to feel normal again with day to day driving. They certainly look cool but as far as im concerned unless they’re absolutely necessary for your JTs use, they may be the issue.

Or just trade it in as is and get a newer year that may not have the same gremlins.
Not going to happen. Going down in tire size without it looking really goofy would cost me far more then continuing the current course. As it is the 37's are looking a bit small for the lift & fenders. I could easily fir & flex 40's with what I have.

And trading in a 2020 with 5k miles for a 2021 with all the same stock parts? That doesn't make sense at all.
 

Gren71

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Not going to happen. Going down in tire size without it looking really goofy would cost me far more then continuing the current course. As it is the 37's are looking a bit small for the lift & fenders. I could easily fir & flex 40's with what I have.
If i had to choose between looking goofy and fully functioning steering id choose steering. But thats me.

I get its not an easy option to try but if you have a buddy willing to let you use their tires it may be worth a shot..if nothing else seems to work.

Id keep it as a last ditch option my friend. Like I said..unpopular for sure..but if nothing else works why not right?

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bastage

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If i had to choose between looking goofy and fully functioning steering id choose steering. But thats me.

I get its not an easy option to try but if you have a buddy willing to let you use their tires it may be worth a shot..if nothing else seems to work.

Id keep it as a last ditch option my friend. Like I said..unpopular for sure..but if nothing else works why not right?

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I have my stock wheels & tires still. Before the gearbox was replaced by the dealership I did put them back & the issue still happened then (just not as bad). And after the gearbox replacement the 37's were fine for a while. This is something mechanical that's got to be loose or something bending/flexing that shouldn't be. Going to a smaller tire to hide an issue isn't a good long term solution. I would much rather resolve the issue.
 

Darkamek

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Not that this should be an issue but how are your wheel bearings? Check for looseness there. Just trying to think of out of the box ideas.
 

KurtP

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@bastage I see a few possible issues.

1- check the install and tq values on your shaft brace as mentioned. It may have backed out because it was improperly tq’d to begin with; has backed off from vibration; etc. torquing something once doesn’t mean it stays good. Toss some red loctite on.

2- I dont see controls arms listed on your lift. You need to be no less than 6° Caster and preferably closer to 6.5°. Get a set of geometry correction brackets and mopar control arms. If your lift DOES include the control arms, adjust caster to 6.5° And make sure your toe-in is on the higher end of spec. Make sure your caster variance left to right is as close as possible.

3- check for play at ball joints and wheel bearings

4- Replace the stock steering stabilizer with a better one. The fox 2.0 is fine. Ensure the mount is torqued to spec.

5- Never went above about 5 mph on it & when I turned back onto plowed road the steering wheel was noticeably off & within the next 1/4 mile the service traction control light came on again. This leads me to ask the question if your steering wheel is on center for your tires on center. It sound to me like it is possible you are a complete steering wheel revolution off true center, so check that. While you’re there, check tq settings on all connections of the tie rod and drag link. If you just cranked them down The first time, use a tq wrench this time and set appropriate tq.

6- check that your control arms are set to appropriate tq. The lowers take damn near 200lb-ft of torque, not “yeah that’s tight enough”. If the arms are not locked in, the axle will not track straight. 190lb-ft. Set the torque wrench and take your vitamin M.

7- if all above fails, have a shop inspect the steering box and come back to us after that.

Any time there is play in ANY of these components, the truck. Will. Not. Drive. Straight. Period. There are a lot of people (not necessarily you) that are dealing with shimmy and wobble problems because they aren’t following the torquing requirements OR checking them periodically after install, and it isn’t holding tension properly at the axle. If the axle is not locked in exactly how it should be, there will be shimmy and wobble.

Good luck, hope that helps. Let us know.
 
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bastage

bastage

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Took it in to the shop (not dealership, but the place I have had to the upgrades). In & out in 45 minutes. When the dealership replaced the box they did NOT use Loctite on the sector shaft nut. My guy literally removed it with his fingers & the pitman arm came off without so much as a soft smack. So all that was re-assembled to synergy torque specs with locktite where applicable & its driving fine again. Not to decide what upgrade I am doing now. Thinking the Teraflex brakes.
 
 



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