Viper501
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
As an initial, and overarching, note, I do not blame Steersmarts for the current experience I am having with the install of the kit on my 2022 Mojave. I take full responsibility for my choices. However, I wanted to put this out there so someone might learn from my choices and not repeat them.
The kit comes with the bracket and hardware for the installation. Following the detailed instructions I cut off the Mojave specific tab as show in the supplemental instructions. I also bent the hose bracket to get it out from underneath the bracket. One of the things that is not clearly depicted on the instructions is that the bracket has a spacer welded to the back of the base bracket. This appears to be intended to move the base to away from the frame and give clearance.
I followed the directions and removed all four of the factory bolts holding the steering box to the frame. I was not expecting the box to move as soon as those bolts were removed. For whatever reason, my box moved a lot and re-aligning it with the frame proved somewhat challenging. I managed to get the SS bracket on and torqued the four bolts down. I then tried to put in the bearing on the bottom of the pitman arm. The bearing slipped over the 42 mm bolt with no problems. The bolts would not line up and it appeared that the main bracket was rotated several degrees off center.
I looked at everything to see if I could figure out why it was not aligning properly. I watched multiple installations on YouTube and searched the forums (both here and the JL). Nothing made any sense and I was incredibly frustrated so I set it aside and went to bed.
I got back on it in the morning and decided to start over and removed the bracket and started trying to figure out what was interfering with the fitment. I pulled all of the bolts and started looking at the potentials for interference. I further moved the remote reservoir bracket to get it out from under the Steersmarts bracket. I also saw that there was a mark on the riser attached to the back of the bracket. It was clearly hitting the weld on the frame where the Mojave‘s extra bracket is attached. I ground off the corner to remove the interference. Doing these two things allowed me to put the bracket on the frame and align the bearing.
I then tried to again bolt in the bracket using the Steersmarts bolts. The alignment of that box while trying to thread in the bolts was somewhere beyond frustrating. The box kept moving and trying to orient the bolt and box on the axises proved too much for me. I ended up losing my patience with one of the bolts and completely goobered it up.
Of course, this is Thanksgiving and I am out of town at my family’s house and do not have all of my tools, nor an open store to get tools to fix my stupid. And it was / is very stupid.
So, be aware of the potential interference between the back of the Steersmarts bracket and the little weld on the frame for our special extra tab on the spring perch. I strongly recommend grinding that edge of the bracket down to ensure it does not rotate the bracket to prevent alignment of the bearing. I also bent the hose bracket to the point that it was completely out from under the Steersmarts bracket. While the supplemental Mojave instructions show moving the hose bracket using a screwdriver and several bolts, I found that putting a small length of pipe over the hose bracket allowed me to bed the piece much more reliably.
Because I boogered the bolts I have put it back to stock pending getting new bolts. I would appreciate some feedback on good techniques for stabilizing the steering box to more easily align the bolts since I’m going to be back in there at some point soon trying to finish the job.
The kit comes with the bracket and hardware for the installation. Following the detailed instructions I cut off the Mojave specific tab as show in the supplemental instructions. I also bent the hose bracket to get it out from underneath the bracket. One of the things that is not clearly depicted on the instructions is that the bracket has a spacer welded to the back of the base bracket. This appears to be intended to move the base to away from the frame and give clearance.
I followed the directions and removed all four of the factory bolts holding the steering box to the frame. I was not expecting the box to move as soon as those bolts were removed. For whatever reason, my box moved a lot and re-aligning it with the frame proved somewhat challenging. I managed to get the SS bracket on and torqued the four bolts down. I then tried to put in the bearing on the bottom of the pitman arm. The bearing slipped over the 42 mm bolt with no problems. The bolts would not line up and it appeared that the main bracket was rotated several degrees off center.
I looked at everything to see if I could figure out why it was not aligning properly. I watched multiple installations on YouTube and searched the forums (both here and the JL). Nothing made any sense and I was incredibly frustrated so I set it aside and went to bed.
I got back on it in the morning and decided to start over and removed the bracket and started trying to figure out what was interfering with the fitment. I pulled all of the bolts and started looking at the potentials for interference. I further moved the remote reservoir bracket to get it out from under the Steersmarts bracket. I also saw that there was a mark on the riser attached to the back of the bracket. It was clearly hitting the weld on the frame where the Mojave‘s extra bracket is attached. I ground off the corner to remove the interference. Doing these two things allowed me to put the bracket on the frame and align the bearing.
I then tried to again bolt in the bracket using the Steersmarts bolts. The alignment of that box while trying to thread in the bolts was somewhere beyond frustrating. The box kept moving and trying to orient the bolt and box on the axises proved too much for me. I ended up losing my patience with one of the bolts and completely goobered it up.
Of course, this is Thanksgiving and I am out of town at my family’s house and do not have all of my tools, nor an open store to get tools to fix my stupid. And it was / is very stupid.
So, be aware of the potential interference between the back of the Steersmarts bracket and the little weld on the frame for our special extra tab on the spring perch. I strongly recommend grinding that edge of the bracket down to ensure it does not rotate the bracket to prevent alignment of the bearing. I also bent the hose bracket to the point that it was completely out from under the Steersmarts bracket. While the supplemental Mojave instructions show moving the hose bracket using a screwdriver and several bolts, I found that putting a small length of pipe over the hose bracket allowed me to bed the piece much more reliably.
Because I boogered the bolts I have put it back to stock pending getting new bolts. I would appreciate some feedback on good techniques for stabilizing the steering box to more easily align the bolts since I’m going to be back in there at some point soon trying to finish the job.
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