• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

XJ is all over the road

V

viperbluelx

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Ringgold, GA
I picked up a 98 XJ with a complete 6.5" Rustys lift with sye with 35" tires.
Before ever driving it I checked all the components of the lift to make sure all was tight. I replaced all wore steering tre's and upgraded to the zj tiered setup and aligned the front end. I do NOT have a front sway bar currently. So tonight was the first time I drove it and it darts all over the road much more than it should and takes half a turn of the steering wheel to correct it then it heads the other way. Any ideas where to go from here?
 
Sway bar will help some for uneven road conditions.
I'd also suspect castor is close to zero with that much lift.

I guess another thing to look at is steering box, may have too much play.
I think that can be adjusted out but I'm not sure.
 
Last edited:
How are your steering angles? The panhard/track bar and drag link need to be as parallel as possible.
 
Play in the steering box track bar perhaps. Have some one turn the steering back and forth a 1/8 of a turn or so and check if there's play on the track bar and compair the steering input to the pitman arm. If you see the input shaft turning and pitman doesn't budge, you can adjust the sector shaft I little bit.
 
viperbluelx said:
The freakin drop pitman arm has movement on the steering box shaft but the nut is tight, wth?
Click to expand...

My friend with a lifted Tj will crack his drop pitman arm from time to time. Get another piman arm and keep on trucking, maybe get a Zj pitman as its only a 1" drop.
 
viperbluelx said:
If you run a dropped track bar bracket you have to run a dropped pitman, right?
Click to expand...

To my knowledge, yes. They need to drop it the same amount though. But if the links are parallel to eachother, youre good there.
 
viperbluelx said:
The freakin drop pitman arm has movement on the steering box shaft but the nut is tight, wth?
Click to expand...

This frequently occurs with some RC drop arms and maybe others too. I know of a few who had this issue and I did as well. What happens is the tapered splined hole on the pitman arm is too big so you have to tighten the nut more than usual to get a tight fit but you can only thread the nut on so far before it runs out of threads on the stud. What you can do to remedy this is find some big grade 8 washers and use two or three to space the nut down some more and tighten it up real good. It will be like this: pitman arm, two or three washers, lock washer, and nut. This has worked for me since but I am going to remove the drop soon.

Look into the caster angle. Bad caster caused my jeep to dart all over and wouldn't stay straight.
 
Last edited:
muddeprived said:
This frequently occurs with some RC drop arms and maybe others too. I know of a few who had this issue and I did as well. What happens is the tapered splined hole on the pitman arm is too big so you have to tighten the nut more than usual to get a tight fit but you can only thread the nut on so far before it runs out of threads on the stud. What you can do to remedy this is find some big grade 8 washers and use two or three to space the nut down some more and tighten it up real good. It will be like this: pitman arm, two or three washers, lock washer, and nut. This has worked for me since but I am going to remove the drop soon.

Look into the caster angle. Bad caster caused my jeep to dart all over and wouldn't stay straight.
Click to expand...

I'll try this!

As far as caster it's got fixed length Rusty's arms upper and lower, I guess I'd have to go with adjustables to fix caster?
 
muddeprived said:
This frequently occurs with some RC drop arms and maybe others too. I know of a few who had this issue and I did as well. What happens is the tapered splined hole on the pitman arm is too big so you have to tighten the nut more than usual to get a tight fit but you can only thread the nut on so far before it runs out of threads on the stud. What you can do to remedy this is find some big grade 8 washers and use two or three to space the nut down some more and tighten it up real good. It will be like this: pitman arm, two or three washers, lock washer, and nut. This has worked for me since but I am going to remove the drop soon.

Look into the caster angle. Bad caster caused my jeep to dart all over and wouldn't stay straight.
Click to expand...
I've had that same problem ony it screw up the splines on the ps box shaft.
 
viperbluelx said:
I'll try this!

As far as caster it's got fixed length Rusty's arms upper and lower, I guess I'd have to go with adjustables to fix caster?
Click to expand...

Yes more than likely unless you can somehow get the correct caster using the factory adjustment shoes (doubt it). Control Arm drop brackets are another option to getting your arms at a better angle and also will assist in correcting caster since it has a large adjustment slot for the lower arm. 6.5" on shorties is kinda pushing it....
 
If you dont have control arm drop brackets,that most of your problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Which steering box brace? Bearing or not?
Replies
7
Views
379
75SV1
7
E
Steering Redo.... Questions before I dive in.
2
Replies
28
Views
1K
RCP Phx
R
C
Tire and Wheel Selection
Replies
2
Views
47
Evan03
E
S
All D30 lockers the same?
Replies
9
Views
470
RCP Phx
R
T
XJ shackle with custom springs question.
Replies
11
Views
208
XJlimitedx99
X
Back
Top