Steering is too sensitive.

OK well my issue is that my '89 XJ drives down the highway at 75mph perfectly strait with no issues at all, however when I want to change lanes, just the slightest turn of the wheel causes it to just DART right over. Its really hard to keep it strait in the wind because of this. The steering wheel is very light, but like I said it tracks perfectly strait even over bumps. The steering wheel has about 2-3" of play or a "dead" spot. My thoughts is that it perhaps needs a new steering box, one of the hose's was leaking from the day I bought it a few months ago....I just replaced it but it may have caused damage to the box. The rest of the steering is stock and the joints look new/recently replaced.

Spec.'s on it:

4.5" Rusty's coil's (new)
RE track bar w/heim (in good shape no play)
Rough Country 2.0 steering stabilizer (new)
Currie Upper and Lower arms (no drop brackets)
and Im not sure of the shocks....they look like old Rancho 5000's.

Also I THINK it may have off-set ball joints.... is there any easy way to find this out? The reason I think this is because as I turn the tires from lock to lock the turns lean over a lot, I dont remember my previous Jeeps being like this.

So yea, my thoughts are,

1. Steering box may have overheated from being low on fluid and cooked itself (fluid was BLACK and really really low)
2. Camber/castor angles may be off
or
3. toe-in/out may need adj.

So where should I start first? and somebody please school me on camber and castor angles....I used to have it down but now I can remember the differance's between the two and what effects they have.

Thanks!

Go to an alignment shop and ask them to print out the alignment specs. Your answer will most likely be there.

X2 most likely an alignment problem. camber is the angle when looking at the front of the tires how they are leaned in. excessive camber causes tire wear and excessively different camber between the left and right tires causes a pull. castor is for return to center and keeping the wheels straight at speed. its the angle the knuckle is at when looking at it from the side. excessively postive castor (top of knuckle tilted more towards the rear) causes hard steering, while more negative castor causes less return to center and a tendency to wander. usually the wheels are very easy to turn with castor close to 0 degrees. excessively unequal castor between left and right wheels causes a drift (different from a pull). id be willing to bet your castor is a little low and or you have a toe problem. bad toe can cause wierd handling problems in addition to killing your tires. since yours is an 89 if you have to adjust castor you have to add/remove shims from the control arm mount on the body.

If it isn't the box, I would check the frame side trackbar bracket. Do you feel like as soon as you go over the crown of the road, the vehicle wants to all of a sudden go in that direction, and does the wheel seem like its centered going straight in one lane, but its not centered in the next lane?

I've had a lose trackbar bracket before, and it would cause the Jeep to dart from one direction to another on the highway once the bracket would shift.

Begster said:

If it isn't the box, I would check the frame side trackbar bracket. Do you feel like as soon as you go over the crown of the road, the vehicle wants to all of a sudden go in that direction, and does the wheel seem like its centered going straight in one lane, but its not centered in the next lane?

I've had a lose trackbar bracket before, and it would cause the Jeep to dart from one direction to another on the highway once the bracket would shift.

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Hmmm, kinda. What it does the worse is when turning through an over-pass at highway speeds (about65mph) it pulls me INTO the apex of the turn, I correct it by steering back out but then I have to steer back in and Im constantly fighting to keep it from turning too sharp.

It tracks strait and wears the tires nice and even, just making long wide high speed turns it pulls you into the center of the turn really bad. Or when changing lanes it just wants to dart right over.

Its really scary to think if I have to react fast to something in from of me, if I jerk the wheel too hard I may end up upside down.

trippled said:

X2 most likely an alignment problem. camber is the angle when looking at the front of the tires how they are leaned in. excessive camber causes tire wear and excessively different camber between the left and right tires causes a pull. castor is for return to center and keeping the wheels straight at speed. its the angle the knuckle is at when looking at it from the side. excessively postive castor (top of knuckle tilted more towards the rear) causes hard steering, while more negative castor causes less return to center and a tendency to wander. usually the wheels are very easy to turn with castor close to 0 degrees. excessively unequal castor between left and right wheels causes a drift (different from a pull). id be willing to bet your castor is a little low and or you have a toe problem. bad toe can cause wierd handling problems in addition to killing your tires. since yours is an 89 if you have to adjust castor you have to add/remove shims from the control arm mount on the body.

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Cool thanks!

Does anybody know how to tell or test to see if a steering box is bad? Im thinking of replacing the steering box, steering shaft and get a Currie HD steering set-up.

[Staight. The word you use defines a water passage.]

You're going to need two people. One to watch linkages, and the other to generate a steering input.

Start the Jeep, and input a small steering correction. Have your spotter watch the dynamics from the front underside of the Jeep. Now reverse the correction.

An input should generate an immediate response at the pitman arm, which should generate an immediate response though out the steering. I would look for worn joints, and issues with the track bar or track bar mounts.

Also be aware that once you lift the Cherokee beyond 3 or so inches, the Inverted Y drag link/Tie rod steering system tends to become less precise as your Toe-In changes as the chassis bounces. If you have the stock tube tie link and you have big tires, consider upgrading your steering linkages to something a bit more stable.

It's likely not a steering box issue. Alignment is what keeps the vehicle going straight and sure. The problem is that when you lift a Jeep, especially with short arms, you rotate that front axle. 4 things change at that very moment. Toe-In, Caster, Camber, and Pinion Angle. With the limited number of adjustment points available, you can only correct the length of the lower arms by adding or subtracting shims (caster), and Toe-In.

To correct the Caster (which also adjusts Pinion Angle), you add or subtract shims equally on each side. Do NOT try and adjust each side individually or your axle will be crooked and you will have created a 5th problem, crabbing. You will have to find a setting that makes a compromise between your Caster and your Pinion Angle.

With the stock components you can't fix camber, so forget it.

Now set your Toe-In. I'd go with 1/16" Toe-In (front narrower than the back) to get the correct angle.

Now if you want to go beyond the stock components. You can buy adjustable ball joints to replace the uppers. That should give you +/- 2 or so deg Camber and Caster adjustment per side.

Or you can get really radical and cut the "C"s off the Axle and weld them back on at the adjustment settings you desire. When folks go really big, that's what they end up doing.

Well, like I said in the first post I think it already has adj. ball joints but Im not sure. I'll be crawling under Tuesday to find out. I have Currie UCA's and LCA's so I can also adj. my camber there and wont have to mess with shimming anything.

You could get us some pictures. Take off a wheel and get a side picture of the axle. Stand to the side of the hub bearing and snap it. Get the pinion and spring included in the picture that way we can tell you if caster is an issue or not. We can also see the deal with the ball joints.

And if you want to check the toe.....

http://www.stu-offroad.com/steering/align/align-1.htm

Renegade XJ said:

Well, like I said in the first post I think it already has adj. ball joints but Im not sure. I'll be crawling under Tuesday to find out. I have Currie UCA's and LCA's so I can also adj. my camber there and wont have to mess with shimming anything.

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Just remember my advice on NOT trying to correct each side individually using the UCA/LCA adjustments. These should be done equally on BOTH sides.

If you have adjustable Ball Joints, I would set them to 0 deg so you have a known set point, then adjust your UCA/LCA equally for proper Pinion angle, then go back and do your individual adjustments with your Ball joints. If you can't get the camber within specs, then dial in additional camber using the LCAs.

Control arms can only be used to adjust castor,not camber!

Zuki-Ron said:

Just remember my advice on NOT trying to correct each side individually using the UCA/LCA adjustments. These should be done equally on BOTH sides.

If you have adjustable Ball Joints, I would set them to 0 deg so you have a known set point, then adjust your UCA/LCA equally for proper Pinion angle, then go back and do your individual adjustments with your Ball joints. If you can't get the caster within specs, then dial in additional caster using the LCAs.

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Sorry about the typo... Geez... Fixed.