Symptoms of a bad steering box?

I have a 97 XJ that had a reman steering box that started puking fluid so I replaced it with what I thought was a junkyard box in good shape. I checked it the way everyone says to look for to check condition. Now before I replaced it I had a clunk from steering. Now I have the same clunk just worse but the steering fells tighter than before. The cluck is almost like a crunching clunk and only makes itself known when transitioning from steering one direction to going the other direction. Once the transition has been made the sound goes away and it is silent through the rest of the turn all the way to lock. So say I had turned all the way to the right, then turned back to the left it would only make the sound when I begin to turn left and not get another sound all the way through the turn back to the left.

Does this sound like a bad box? I know with it being a junkyard box, that it is highly likely but it seems to check out ok otherwise.

Have you checked the ball joints?
Tierod ends?
Trackbar?

usually a bad steering box will be overly loose in operation, you'll see a large amount of movement at the input with little at the output shaft. Or there will be side to side play in either the input or output shafts (or both).

I would suspect something else from the noises you describe. But if those are all fine then there is the possibilty of foreign contaminants or broken teeth on the worm or sector shafts.

Usually a crunching clunk in transitioning from one direction to the other is the ball joints, as the axle shifts when steering. but really even bad control arm bushings can make a similar noise if bad enough.

My boxes were problematic to the point of aggrevating death wobble, and excessive wandering (my last box had 4" of steering wheel input before the tire would react). My original box had about 2" freeplay.

Devilfrog said:

But if those are all fine then there is the possibilty of foreign contaminants or broken teeth on the worm or sector shafts.

Click to expand...

Would you please elaborate on how to check these? Thanks a million.

Which?
Ball joints?
Tierods?

or contaninants or broken teeth in the box? For this turn the input shaft and hope for some kind of hint. That's the problem with a JY box ... may be good, may be bad.

Ok I have quadruple checked the track bar, which is an Iron Man 4x4 Fab super beef track bar with upgraded axle end bolt to a larger bolt.

The ball joints are spicer replacements that are 1 1/2 years old. So I really hope that they haven't gone bad after just over a year.

Now the control arms are, wait for it.... Rough Country flex arms! I know they are notorious for clunking and going bad. I bought them used and rebuilt them. I rebuilt the flex joints with new bushing and washers supplied by RC and I was told they were improvements over the original bushing that wore out. The fixed joint bushing at the other end were replaced with 95 durometer bushings from Iron Man 4x4 Fab and the bushing sleeves were replaced with the machined tapered bushing sleeves from them as well. So theoretically they should be good but who knows.

The steering linkage however is all original 1997 with 239,000 miles on it.

Check the intermediate steering shaft from the bottom of the column to the steering box. I repeatedly wear these out, each one lasts me about 6-12 months. It's getting bad enough that I've considered having a friend machine me some replacement/upgraded steering shaft ujoints instead of getting another one.

An indicator of trac bar issues is the steering wheel doesn't center anymore (when you lock it center, the center of the steering wheel is off center). The top castle nut for the tarc bar is hard to tighten and comes loose. The way to see it is to have someone push on the fender, sideways and watch the castle nut with a flashlight closely. The vertical movement translates into steering wheel play.

Pretty much the same way I check a steering box, I look for leaks and then watch the sector shaft. The sector shaft may go up and down a little when you steer left and right, a little doesn't seem to hurt much. Not much difference between a little and too much though.

The way I check a ball joint is to jack a tire off the ground, then use a pry bar or a three foot piece of 2X4 to lever the front tire straight up. You can see any play in the ball joints this way. Ball joints usually start popping on me first, when turning into a driveway. It is kind of a thunk, pop, noise once you hear and localize you will remember.

The Track bar is an aftermarket one from Iron Man 4x4 Fab and it has been checked and within spec.

The Box is a Junk yard box that appears to check out fine. No up and down movement of the sector shaft, no leakage, no excessive movement of the input shaft before the sector shaft begins to move, steering feels tight for a lifted Jeep and actually improved over the box that is replaced.

Ball-joints are spicer units replaced November 2011.

Control arms are Rough Country flex arms that have been rebuilt roughly 1 1/2 years ago.

The axle u-joints are spicer units replaced about 1 1/2 ago as well.

The unit bearings are about 2 years old now as well and I cannot remember what brand they are.

The only thing that hasn't been replaced is anything in the steering linkage.