*** Steering Issue ***

OK well first things first, I've got a 93 with a RE 5.5" short arm kit. Steering was a little loose nothing major up until today. I went to hop in the Jeep and grabbed the steering wheel and it popped loose. I thought to myself well I guess the lock inside the column broke loose and I'm not worried about it. Then came to time to drive the Jeep. At this point I noticed that my steering wheel is now way off centered from where it was and the steering seems way more loose. The pictures below are the steering wheel position now vs how it was before the "pop sound". Just to clarify the popping sound came from the column itself not any steering component in the front end.
In the attached video the wheels barley moved. I don't think it had that much play before. Any advice or a good starting point to find the problem would be awesome. Thanks in advanced

Before the popping sound


After the popping sound


http://youtu.be/bLaYeCpI82s

I'm just about dealing with the same issue and i'm troubleshooting it now.

Here's my thread. You might be able to employ the same methods to try to track down the culprit. Have you checked anything under the hood?

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1100375

Well upon looking things over with the steering and turning the wheel back and forth it seems that the previous owner only had ONE BOLT HOLDING THE STEERING BOX ON! The lone bolt holding the steering box broke. Now Ill have to fix that and see if that has anything to do with what happen today. I still don't think it has anything to do with my steering wheel being off from where it started the day out at I guess we'll see. Any pointers on remounting the steering box?

The location of the steering box most certainly will affect the position of the steering wheel.


Try putting the other 2 bolts back in?

I don't have the two other bolts and the one that was in there snapped. I've got a buddy with the bolts and he's going to bring them over tomorrow. Hopefully that's all it'll need.

If you don't think two out of three bolts being out isn't a problem you're out of your mind.

That one bolt just acts as a fulcrum for the entire box to pivot on.

Kingkong0192 said:

If you don't think two out of three bolts being out isn't a problem you're out of your mind.

That one bolt just acts as a fulcrum for the entire box to pivot on.

Click to expand...

I agree with you 100% except for the mad part. The only reason I said I don't know if that is my only problem is because of the pop in the steering column that I had a hour or two before the bolt broke.

That pop was the bolt snapping. It let go with a little energy and some of it you could feel all the way up to the steering wheel.

Mach2nh said:

That pop was the bolt snapping. It let go with a little energy and some of it you could feel all the way up to the steering wheel.

Click to expand...

Very well could have been. I'll report back tomorrow with it all fixed up hopefully. Thanks for all the input