Currie Steering nasty creaking/popping issues

Any of you Currie-heads out there experience a loud, disconcerting creaking sound from the driver's side of the Currie steering system? I've been running this steering upgrade for a couple of months and it started a horrible metallic creaking noise a few weeks ago. It is very obvious when the wheel is turned quickly from side to side. I've lubed the ball joints and even pulled it off the Jeep rotated the joints to make sure they had enough grease. Seems good from what I can tell. Noise comes from the driver's side but it's hard to pin point from the seat.

Suggestions? Sounds like it is going to fall off the Jeep. If you don't hear back from me, you can assume it has.

Are you sure you don't have a crack in your frame?

mine actaully made this sound when I used the RE extreme duty TB system, the bushings were shot!

x2. i would check for other worn items such as the trackbar at the frame end. i also run the RE extreme duty and it needs to be tightened pretty often. maybe even needs new plastic races. P/N RE3798

I first highly recommend checking the frame around the steering box to make sure you don't have cracks. Remove the sway bar frame bracket and check under there for cracks because when I removed mine I had a huge crack running from side to side on the underside of the frame where the metal had completely split. After seeing that I quickly went about getting the frame welded up and put on a c-rok frame re-enforcement kit on. But also check your track bar mount bolts and tighten them if needed and check your bushings at the axle end.

Check your steering box spacer/bolts.

My currie system is silent, perfect, flawless. My currie joints on my RC long arms are silent, perfect, flawless.


It's something else, gotta be.

muddeprived said:

My currie system is silent, perfect, flawless. My currie joints on my RC long arms are silent, perfect, flawless.


It's something else, gotta be.

Click to expand...

lolz.

Are you sure its not the balljoints worn out? Mine made the same noise when they went bad.

Thanks for the replies, guys. The Currie system is new and started making noise a week or so after installation. I removed and greased the joints, making sure enough grease made its way into them through the zerks. They are new and can't be worn out but I won't completely discount the idea.

I did a visual check of steering mount, bolts, and frame and found no evidence of cracks or loose hardware. I recently retorqued everything and at the time all was tight, but I'll take a closer look this weekend as time permits. I do think the RE trackbar joint could be the source and will remove it as well.

In the last few weeks, I've replaced the RE leaf spring bushings, upper control arm bushings, D30 lower control arm bushing (driver's side only), and I have a set of coil spring isolators and the passenger side D30 bushing waiting to be installed this weekend. All of these lasted about a year or so after installing my RE 6200 lift, but I guess that's to be expected.

I'll post up my findings after tearing into it this weekend.

Have someone else rock the steering wheel back and forth while you look at everything. That way you should be able to see any movement in all of the ball joints, bushings, and everything else.

Oldmanxj stopped by this morning and helped me find the source of the creaking. While I moved the wheel back and forth he noticed the two vertical trackbar relo bracket bolts were loose and causing the entire bracket to move. Thanks for the help, Don.

We also replaced my worn coil spring isolator pads. The Jeep runs great and is noise free. As a bonus, the coils are now perfectly centered around the bump stop towers.

What did the isolators look like when you removed em?

Isolators were worn down to the metal core in several spots. The coils found a way to work through the rubber and left the isolators abused and uneven.