royceda59832
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- Thread starter
- #1
When I bought my JT, I knew of and expected loose steering. However, after taking it home and getting used to it for several weeks, I still was not comfortable with how the steering reacted to inputs. I had a solid 3”-4” of travel in the steering wheel before ANY response was transmitted to the wheels. Car drifting to the right? Turn the wheel 4.5” to the left to correct. Correct too far? Turn the wheel 4.5” to the right again. Driving straight turned into a cartoonish comedy. This is not normal behavior for any vehicle - this is indicative that, whether through accumulation or otherwise, there is too much tolerance between the steering wheel input and the wheels. The most likely culprit in my situation was the steering box, and this ended up also being the easiest fix.
An image and description of the steering box can be found at the link below, posted by the user TL&JL. You’ll need a 15mm wrench and a T25 (or equivalent hex). Loosen the 15mm nut and tighten the hex - I started with 1/8 but ended up tightening the hex a full 1/2 turn before I was happy. I used a T25 attached to a 1/4” socket, since my allen wrench was flexing too much when trying to turn the hex. The original position of the two screws was marked by the factory in case I ever need to return to factory settings. I did not have to heat anything or disassemble/remove any parts to access the steering box.
After this adjustment, the steering reacts as a Jeep with two live axles is expected to react. The steering isn’t 100% precise, but you can tell there is only maybe 1/2” of dead space before there is a reaction from the wheels. Once you’re past the dead spot, you can feel the other driveline components start to react and whatever other tolerances from the bushings etc come into play, but the wheels actually do start to turn almost immediately.
Link to photo and additional description of the steering box: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/how-to-tighten-steering.9041/page-6#post-219185
This was my story of fixing my loose steering. The same fix may not work for you or may have negative results. Use this information at your own risk. Some posters state that you will ruin your steering gears by putting too much stress on them, or that your wheel will not automatically return to center. Be aware of these risks and adjust accordingly. After the adjustment, my wheel returns to center the same if not easier than prior to adjusting. This was on a Sport S with Rubicon (Falken Wildpeak) rims and tires. No lift. Changing from the original Sport S wheels/tires to Rubicon wheels/tires prior to the adjustment had no impact on the looseness of the steering (i.e. steering was just as loose with the Sport S wheels as it was with the Rubicon wheels prior to adjustment of the steering box).
An image and description of the steering box can be found at the link below, posted by the user TL&JL. You’ll need a 15mm wrench and a T25 (or equivalent hex). Loosen the 15mm nut and tighten the hex - I started with 1/8 but ended up tightening the hex a full 1/2 turn before I was happy. I used a T25 attached to a 1/4” socket, since my allen wrench was flexing too much when trying to turn the hex. The original position of the two screws was marked by the factory in case I ever need to return to factory settings. I did not have to heat anything or disassemble/remove any parts to access the steering box.
After this adjustment, the steering reacts as a Jeep with two live axles is expected to react. The steering isn’t 100% precise, but you can tell there is only maybe 1/2” of dead space before there is a reaction from the wheels. Once you’re past the dead spot, you can feel the other driveline components start to react and whatever other tolerances from the bushings etc come into play, but the wheels actually do start to turn almost immediately.
Link to photo and additional description of the steering box: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/how-to-tighten-steering.9041/page-6#post-219185
This was my story of fixing my loose steering. The same fix may not work for you or may have negative results. Use this information at your own risk. Some posters state that you will ruin your steering gears by putting too much stress on them, or that your wheel will not automatically return to center. Be aware of these risks and adjust accordingly. After the adjustment, my wheel returns to center the same if not easier than prior to adjusting. This was on a Sport S with Rubicon (Falken Wildpeak) rims and tires. No lift. Changing from the original Sport S wheels/tires to Rubicon wheels/tires prior to the adjustment had no impact on the looseness of the steering (i.e. steering was just as loose with the Sport S wheels as it was with the Rubicon wheels prior to adjustment of the steering box).
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