Boring tale of stiff steering

I have a stock '00 XJ with 73k miles on it. I've driven a few other XJ's, Grand Cherokees and Wranglers and none of then steered like mine - that I remember anyway. A '93 I drove reminded my of the Gran Torino I had in high school - one finger, overboosted steering.

Basically it's stiff on center so I have to make constant corrections - it feels like a bound up steering damper. I've heard that Jeep deliberately stiffened the steering feel in 2000, but I'm not clear on what they did. There's no hint whatsoever of DW, but it's slightly "wandery". It was very wandery before I replaced the track bar (the track bar TRE was the only loose thing I could find in the steering system).

Tonight I rotated the tires and I shot some grease into the upper ball joints. Grease came out from under the boots on the 2nd pump and it didn't look too bad.

I reefed on the front wheels while the truck was on the stands and there was zero movement, no clunking, nothing. The wheels turned with no resistance or noises.

I removed the steering damper. I cycled it and it feels smooth and has equal resistance in both directions.

I went for a ~5 mile ride with the damper removed and I only felt a very slight difference when turning sharp while going slow i.e. leaving the driveway. On back roads up to 65 mph I noticed no change in steering feel.

I know it's never gonna steer like a GTi but the thing is annoying to drive and I'm willing to persevere to improve it. It appears that any new steering box for any year XJ is the same, so I don't think I can get a new one with the old design. Maybe I'm wrong on that.

Any help or ideas for where to start would be much appreciated.

rockauto.com didn't get the memo on the steering gear change--they list the same part number 1990 to 2000.

You could try the steering gear out of another Chryco, you will need to do your own search but I believe the ZJ/WJ, Dakota, and Durango are popular choices, and they have faster ratios.

Food for thought. Poster on naxja was complaining about stiff steering--the plate that bolts to the engine block, and that the motor mount attaches too, well, all of the mounting bolts for that plate were broke or missing, and the manifolds were contacting the steering shaft.

i have noticed that my friends that have 97+ xj's have really stiff steering, and my 87, and my 89 xj's, and my '91 full size waggy all have the really loose feeling steering, even after changing all the rod ends, dampener, etc. i think it is a difference in gearing in the boxes, because i put a '99 power steering pump on my 87, and it was still nice and loose. a lot of people that are used to the newer steering hate the older loose steering. i personally like being able to turn 33's with one finger, after having 35's on a 74 cj with no power steering, so yeah. maybe try an older steering box.