98 wandering around

jinotown · Jan 23, 2014

I'm looking for ideas on why my 98 with a 3" lift likes to wander around the road. It's not severe, I just have to constantly slightly correct. Here is what I checked so far:
*all bushings and joints are tight
*axle is centered in frame (Rusty's adjustable trac bar)
*no cracks on frame at steering box or trac bar mount
*new stabilizer
*caster is +5 degrees
*tried toe from 0 to +1/4"
*tried many tire pressures on 31's
*adjusted steering box

What did I miss?

mako my day · Jan 23, 2014

Sounds like a jeep.

SleeperXJ · Jan 23, 2014

My 99 does the same thing. Mine was because I pointed the pinion towards the
transfer case (adjustable control arms). This resulted in decrease caster angle.
I ended up compromising the pinion angle to get to ~4.5 deg caster. It's better but
not ideal.

ColoradoRaptor · Jan 23, 2014

jinotown said:
I'm looking for ideas on why my 98 with a 3" lift likes to wander around the road. It's not severe, I just have to constantly slightly correct. Here is what I checked so far:
*all bushings and joints are tight
*axle is centered in frame (Rusty's adjustable trac bar)
*no cracks on frame at steering box or trac bar mount
*new stabilizer
*caster is +5 degrees
*tried toe from 0 to +1/4"
*tried many tire pressures on 31's
*adjusted steering box

What did I miss?

High pinion or low?
I would go to 7 deg and toe in 1/2"
Something is loose or broke....

yossarian19 · Jan 23, 2014

With engine off, how far do you move the steering wheel before it catches? Engine off key on.
What I'm getting at is that there is probably a loose / worn component in your steering and it very well could be the box. The box, even if you adjust it, may still be the culprit.

lazyxj · Jan 23, 2014

yossarian19 said:
What I'm getting at is that there is probably a loose / worn component in your steering and it very well could be the box. The box, even if you adjust it, may still be the culprit.

If the steering box is badly worn, no amount of 'adjusting' will make it tight. We just had a steering box thread here a few days ago.
Get a helper to crank the steering wheel back and forth while you get under the front end and check every moving part for looseness.
Check to see if the steering box's pitman arm shaft is moving sideways, common on worn boxes. Also make sure there is no looseness in either end of the track bar and it mounts.

jinotown · Jan 24, 2014

Thanks for all the help. I am leaning to a loose steering box at this point. This Jeep was street driven most of its life so the front end is very tight. I have a race car shop so I have spent hours playing with the alignment and the axles are square with the world. Maybe it's just me. I am XJ ignorant still and not used to the steering. I would like to narrow it down before I spring for adjustable control arms or a new box.

VAhasnoWAVES · Jan 24, 2014

i recommend dialing in more castor, your on the low end for even stock height/tires. you can get a away with quite a bit with a HP30 (assuming) and only 3" of lift. i have more castor with more lift, you can probably get more...

cant believe no one suggested:
are the tires balanced well? tried rotating them?

if nothing else works... its got to be the rustys trackbar.
(kidding)

Warlock1 · Jan 25, 2014

ColoradoRaptor said:
High pinion or low?
I would go to 7 deg and toe in 1/2"
Something is loose or broke....

1/2" WOA! WAAAAYYYY too much! Might be ok on a dedicated trail rig but not for the street. You will wear tires like crazy. Factory spec is 0"to 1/16".

98 wandering around

jinotown

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mako my day

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SleeperXJ

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ColoradoRaptor

Headbanging Hillbilly

yossarian19

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lazyxj

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jinotown

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VAhasnoWAVES

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Warlock1

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