Thoughts on steering issue

[Rubiwoo]

Thoughts on steering issue.

SPECS:
4.5" Rock Krawler Suspension coils, clayton upper and lower control arms, steersmart steering tie rod, drag link and sector shaft brace, clayton track bar. 7 degrees caster, 1/8 toe in, 40" Baja Boss tires at 30 psi. All nuts recent torqued to spec and marked. Balljoint deletes and recently retorqued.

ISSUE:
I feel like I am always chasing the steering wheel. I can hit a bump and the steering wheel doesn't move, so it's not bump steer. The drag link and track bar look to be close inline. It recenters itself, so caster is fine. It just feels floaty. The alignment was recently done. The steering stabilizer is inline with the tie rod.

Thoughts and suggestons?

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[imallcrawl]

You could try the Synergy or Steer Smarts track bar and sector shaft brace, it worked for me and many others in the forums!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You could try the Synergy or Steer Smarts track bar and sector shaft brace, it worked for me and many others in the forums!

He already did.........

steersmart steering tie rod, drag link and sector shaft brace,

What wheels - any spacers and so on?
If you've changed scrub radius by moving the centers of the tires out, and with those large tires, you may need to change toe.......... maybe even out, depending on what you've done.

 

[imallcrawl]

SPECS:
... steersmart steering tie rod, drag link and sector shaft brace...

I must be getting old, I totally did not see that Have you tried tightening your steering box or did I miss that too?

 

[RudeJeepin]

@Rubiwoo
Where is the toe in measured at? 1/8" to 1/4" is what I usually set big truck tires to, measured at the outer most part of the tires. They are roughly 42s so similar.
Do you have the aluminum or steel steering box?
Also 30psi sounds like way too much air pressure for such a big tire. No experience with those tires or that size on a Gladiator, so not really sure what pressure to run.

My 35s seem to track best at 26psi cold in the front. Mine run around 29 once warmed up. Too much more and I notice it's darty and seems to wander more.

 

[imallcrawl]

With the 40's on my JKU and the 40's now on my JT, I run it at 40psi on the street and there is no wandering at all. As for the steering box, I believe the OP has a 2020 JT so it may be aluminum unless he upgraded to steel?

 

[DanJT]

With the 40's on my JKU and the 40's now on my JT, I run it at 40psi on the street and there is no wandering at all. As for the steering box, I believe the OP has a 2020 JT so it may be aluminum unless he upgraded to steel?

Why 40 PSI? I would think 35-37 would be sufficient on the JT.

 

[Rubiwoo]

What wheels - any spacers and so on?
If you've changed scrub radius by moving the centers of the tires out, and with those large tires, you may need to change toe.......... maybe even out, depending on what you've done.

Black Rhino Rift Beadlock Wheel
Offset: -38mm
Size: 17x8.5
Backspacing: 3.25

No spacers

 

[Rubiwoo]

@Rubiwoo
Where is the toe in measured at? 1/8" to 1/4"

1/8 and steel box

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Why 40 PSI? I would think 35-37 would be sufficient on the JT.

The larger the tire, the lower the inflation is a "general rule".
Since "33's" are usually 36-37 psi depending on the weight of the vehicle, I'd expect 40s to be a lot lower than 40 psi. (however some tires are exceptions.......)

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I must be getting old, I totally did not see that Have you tried tightening your steering box or did I miss that too?

That's a hack and should only be done if it's shown there is play. Too many fools treat that as a play adjustment. It's not - it's a PRELOAD adjustment.
That should not be taken lightly like most who have no clue what those look like or how they work or what that adjustment even truly does.
you can get into big trouble with that, but once a Jeep owner says "it's a fix" then suddenly it's a fix, no matter how incorrect they might be.
It's such a critical setting there's a whole paragraph in the TSMs about that setting.

But it's yours to wear out........or lock up.

 

[DanJT]

That's what I'm thinking!!

 

[RudeJeepin]

1/8 and steel box

Yes, but where is the 1/8" toe in measured at?

 

[flightace37]

Some suggestions:

Verify you have proper torque on the tie rod and drag link ends if you didn’t do them yourself. This has been a float culprit for us before.

Check the condition of your track bar bushings front AND rear by having someone rock the steering & jump on/jostle the rear bumper while you look.

What do you have for a rear track bar? After a few thousand miles I could see our OEM one flexing a LOT by shoving things around. I was surprised to find it was thin rolled steel — much below the quality of my wife’s OEM JLUR rear TB.

We replaced the JTR’s front & rear TBs with Clayton and it made the steering much more predictable. Before that, I could feel the OEM rear end moving around through corners, so I’m not sure if you have the same problem.

The track bar & sector brace also makes a huge difference, but you have one. Check the torque on the two small bolts for the sector brace part. These can come loose after first install and lead to a return to “vague” steering, but not something I would say you have to “chase”.

Also to consider — we tried the steer smarts tie rod on my wife’s JLUR and took it back off because it didn’t quite center up under road forces. It was too stiff for our 34s with any stabilizer installed. I found I was always manually centering the steering on the highway. Since the roads are so bumpy around here, it required constant corrections. The problem was more pronounced at low speed like you’d expect.

I figured out it was the tie rod because I could feel the friction in the wheel with the front end supported on jack stands and the stabilizer removed. There was a difference between torqued & loose tie rod ends. They introduced too much friction once torqued.

I must have swapped out the tie rod and stabilizer on her JLUR 5 times. We put those parts back to OEM and her steering became as good as some rack and pinion cars because of the other mods. I’ve got 2 different stabilizers and a steer smarts tie rod gathering dust for my trouble. A damaged Falcon stabilizer went in the trash too.


Your Falcon stabilizer is set to medium. Before worrying about the tie rod ends, try soft for a while.

(YMMV on all that though since you say it centers up.)

One more thing… if you have more than 1/4-1/2 inch of “fingertip pressure” play in the steering wheel before you feel any real tire tension, check torque on the pinch coupler bolt that connects the steering shaft to your steering gear. When we had our JLUR steering TSB done, the dealer forgot to torque it. It was a nightmare for most of a year until I decided to check. I doubt that’s your problem but it’s very easy to feel for it.

For setting toe, we use the Bleepin’ Jeep devices that you bolt to the hubs. I like the feel of 3/16 toe-in on there. At 1/16, the road forces may pull your wheels out past parallel with all the play in the system. 7 degrees caster feels great to us.

 

[VA6489]

Black Rhino Rift Beadlock Wheel
Offset: -38mm
Size: 17x8.5
Backspacing: 3.25

No spacers

3.25 BS is a huge change from stock. This will effect scrub radius. This will make the wheel more sensitive to road imperfections and obstacles.





Cheers

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