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Loose Steering?

Factoid

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Wow, NOT normal at all!

Can’t wait to hear what the dealer service says.
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5chema

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Here is the dead space in my wheel. Taking it in Tuesday to get checked out. I've been writing this off as normal - this isn't normal right?

And does your steering return to center when you take a corner, especially in the city at a crossing? Or you have to finish it “manually”?
 

Bhoag

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Note that there is no alignment that can be done other than center the steering wheel and set toe-in.
Caster and camber are both set in stone. If you used adjustable lower control arms you could set the caster some, but the difference between left wheel caster and right wheel caster cannot be set. Both move together since it's a solid axle.

However, having it checked is a great place to start for certain. It's a good first move. They can at least check the angles and set toe - then you have something concrete to go on and have at least taken that first logic step.
Good luck - we're pulling for you.
I just got back from the tire shop, they found a cross threaded bolt on the track bar, passenger side. They removed the bolt and replaced it with a case hardened bolt. I have the crossed bolt, nut and have made an appointment with the dealer to have to correct bolt and nut installed.
I would say it now drives to my expectation. My steering wheel is not centered now, will have the dealer fix that.
 

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And does your steering return to center when you take a corner, especially in the city at a crossing? Or you have to finish it “manually”?
I feel like it comes back to center without issue - just has that gap before it will respond to the opposite direction it was last turned to. I'll pay more attention to that though when I go back out later.
 

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Wow, this is the second time on this forum that one of the track bar bolts has been cross threaded. I wonder if it is installed by human or robot? Regardless, it is worth putting on the checklist for anyone having steering issues.

Glad to hear you are on your way to having it resolved!
 

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I just got back from the tire shop, they found a cross threaded bolt on the track bar, passenger side. They removed the bolt and replaced it with a case hardened bolt. I have the crossed bolt, nut and have made an appointment with the dealer to have to correct bolt and nut installed.
I would say it now drives to my expectation. My steering wheel is not centered now, will have the dealer fix that.
Wow, that's the second time I've heard of that.
Likely the stock is a metric, equiv of a grade 8.
I'd never use anything less in steering or certain suspension areas.
When I do upgrades, brake conversions and such, it's grade 8 all the way.
When I do spring swaps and shock upgrades, I'll have to look to see just what the stock bolts are under there.

Before anyone suggests anything about factory workers and cross-threaded parts and such - I recently bought up several boxes of new old stock (NOS) alternator parts that were taken from the AMC plant in Kenosha. One of most common parts in the lot of stuff was the alternator front frames. Some were "take-offs", others were new, unused. I thought for a second now why would AMC have Motorola alternator parts in the plant? They bought the alternators from Motorola as an assembly. Then I looked - the "take-offs" all had the threads STRIPPED or they had been cross-threaded and what they were doing is taking the alternator they screwed up during assembly, setting it aside and another person was taking brand new front frames and swapping them out. There were certain other parts, too but when I looked everything over logically I determined this had to have happened more often than you might think. There were over 150 front bearings - meaning they had dome that front frame swap at least 150 times- and that's just the lot of parts that I got my hands on!
(When I restore alternators I typically drill the adjustment screw hole and put in a helicoil anyway, so I have several NOS front frames that are actually better because I drilled and installed helicoil.)
I have NOS parking lights for 70 Javelin still in the boxes - when I opened the box I found they had drilled the mounting holes in the wrong spot. It was common practice to take such parts, box them up and send them off to dealers as replacements - let the dealer mess with it. I have a NOS grill - the paint pattern was all messed up - not something they'd use in a car on the line, but it was sent to a dealer to use as a replacement, let the dealer repaint and install it.

So screw-ups like cross-threaded bolts happen. It's a shame that in this case they made it out the door to a CUSTOMER!
You can't properly torque a cross-threaded bolt so likely it was "tight" as far as their measure and off it went - but the track bar could have some play as it wasn't properly CLAMPED by that bolt.
 

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Added a point of reference - seems like it will go right further than left.

 

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Playing that vid at half speed is interesting; watching the tape and the on-road response (none).
 

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Here is the dead space in my wheel. Taking it in Tuesday to get checked out. I've been writing this off as normal - this isn't normal right?

That is NOT normal! Same as mine. Anyways, here’s my update as of now...
My new steering box was delivered to the stealership yesterday. The soonest they could ‘get me in’ is monday the 13th. And they are already trying to avoid giving me a loaner for the day. “We can have the serv mgr drop you off at home in your truck, drive it back and work on it, then come pick you up when its done”. R u FN kidding me? Now im not sure what to do. Im extremely happy that there is an end to this BS, however, this is a safety issue and they have the part but want me to keep driving it? Mite be opening my jeep cares case now, not sure. And even better news... do I wait until the steering is fixed before I mention the wonderful smell of antifreeze whenever its running? (No leaks on ground) F M L
 

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I would drop it off the night before, or first thing in the morning. Big picture; it's getting addressed. Have them check out the coolant odor while they have it. Personally, I wouldn't sweat the loaner issue; just me though.
 

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I have been watching this thread for about a month since I bought my JT Rubicon. It is completely stock and I have the same loose steering as some of you. I brought it to the dealer about a month ago and they said it drove normal and gave me the zombie look. My Jeep drives perfectly straight down the highway if the pitch in the road is flat. Then when the pitch changes or you get a gust of wind it will drift off to one side or the other. Then since there is a dead space in the steering and you go to correct you never know when the dead space is going to end and you have control of the vehicle again. You over or under correct which leaves you on the yellow line or on the edge of the road. I have had my wife move the steering wheel with it running while I was underneath it and with about 1 1/2 movement left to right there is very little movement on the pitman arm. I sold my 2014 JKU to buy this and the steering on that felt like a Porsche compared to this. No one will ever convince that almost all the issues everyone is having isn't caused by a steering box that has play in it. I would love to take a wrench and adjust it but I am not sure that is something I should have to do.
 

5chema

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That is NOT normal! Same as mine. Anyways, here’s my update as of now...
My new steering box was delivered to the stealership yesterday. The soonest they could ‘get me in’ is monday the 13th. [...]
Please post an update when you’ll be driving with the new steering box installed!
 

ShadowsPapa

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That is NOT normal! Same as mine. Anyways, here’s my update as of now...
My new steering box was delivered to the stealership yesterday. The soonest they could ‘get me in’ is monday the 13th. And they are already trying to avoid giving me a loaner for the day. “We can have the serv mgr drop you off at home in your truck, drive it back and work on it, then come pick you up when its done”. R u FN kidding me? Now im not sure what to do. Im extremely happy that there is an end to this BS, however, this is a safety issue and they have the part but want me to keep driving it? Mite be opening my jeep cares case now, not sure. And even better news... do I wait until the steering is fixed before I mention the wonderful smell of antifreeze whenever its running? (No leaks on ground) F M L
Jeep Wave states you get a loaner for the day. Are they going to violate that promise in writing in the packet?
 

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I am watching this thread as well. Like to get as much info to present to dealer with mine. Wife doesn't like driving it with the steering like it is.
 

Scrubb84

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I guess I was just in a bad mood earlier. Anyways, she’s going in to get the new box put in on monday the 13th. I will post back here that evening with all the info you want.
Btw, I could not move the input shaft by hand on the new box, that’s a good start!
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