Steering box???

rumblebelly · Nov 23, 2005

I noticed a minor knock coming from my steering wheel on my 00 Classic (81k miles, bone stock). When I move the steering wheel about 1/8 of a turn back and forth, I get a slight knock when the steering wheel is moving to the left. Sometimes does it when the vehicle is moving and seems to happen occasionally when the vehicle goes over a large bump.

I had my wife move the steering wheel back and forth while I was underneath and it felt like it was traveling throughout the steering linkage...drag link, tie rod, and seemed strongest at the pitman arm. There's just a tad bit of play on the pitman arm, not much though and I really gotta jerk at it to get any. There's a little play in the steering dampener too, a bit more than the pitman arm...not much.

The track bar looks tight and the ball joints are new.

Is my steering box starting to go or is my wife right and I'm just another paranoid jeep owner?

Matthew Currie · Nov 23, 2005

It really shouldn't make a noise when it's moving. It's not too uncommon to have a little clink in the steering gear when it's turned off, but it should go away when the fluid is circulating. If there's play in the output shaft bearing of the steering box that's bad. None of the linkages should have any play either, whether or not you jerk them hard. It sounds as if you really need to get this looked at.

rumblebelly · Nov 23, 2005

Getting it looked at is a good idea but I recently had a really bad experience at a shop about 3 weeks ago. I'm reluctant to take it to anyone. I made about 4 or 5 trips to this shop, had to take cal time from work just to get my car fixed and for them to fix their mistake. This is also compounded by my suspicion that I have an XJ with questionable quality (bad ball joints, hubs, jacked up loose caliper, swaybar bushings...at 81000 miles). I'm thinking about getting rid of this thing, even though I've owned it for less than a year. Sorry for the rant.

Anyway, I'd like to know if this is something I really need to worry about and if I can feasibly fix it or not. So I take it the pitman arm should be tight as can be. Is this the sign of a steering box going south? Since the play is so small, are there any tips on how to separate play from the linkage and pitman arm?

1096xj · Nov 23, 2005

I just replaced the pump, box and hoses on my 90xj. The paperwork that came with the reman steering box said " The majority of power steering gears are built with a roller bearing that supports the pitman shaft, and allows it to rotate; the force that is placed on the pitman arm transfers to the pitman shaft. The roller bering is designed to absorb this movement, thus a noticeable amount of lateral movement can be observed- This is a normal characteristic of a roller bearing when used in this application." This was on a paper titled "Steering Gear Pitman Shaft Movement". So is the movement you see a lateral movement? Of course this could all be mumbo-jumbo to cover up the chance that the remaned gear box is wore out to begin with. Also there is no play by hand, only with jeep running and my wife turns the wheel while I look for movement is there a small amount of lateral movement. There is no rotational (is that a word) play at all. It did make the jeep drive almost like a new one. Before the new system the jeep wandered now it is very easy to keep it going in the right direction. Hope this helps.

rumblebelly · Nov 23, 2005

Yeah, the movement is lateral. The jeeps handles just fine and there is no leaking. Maybe I'll just wait and see what developes.

What got me all paranoid about all of this was this loud pop while I was driving in a parking lot yesterday. Figured it was my trackbar. I checked that and it seems tight (well, prolly couldn't move the nut because of all the rust). However, it only did it once and hasn't done it again. It was a different sound than what I'm hearing now which is just a mild knock, mostly when the jeep is not moving.

Matthew Currie · Nov 23, 2005

1096xj said:
I just replaced the pump, box and hoses on my 90xj. The paperwork that came with the reman steering box said " The majority of power steering gears are built with a roller bearing that supports the pitman shaft, and allows it to rotate; the force that is placed on the pitman arm transfers to the pitman shaft. The roller bering is designed to absorb this movement, thus a noticeable amount of lateral movement can be observed- This is a normal characteristic of a roller bearing when used in this application." This was on a paper titled "Steering Gear Pitman Shaft Movement". So is the movement you see a lateral movement? Of course this could all be mumbo-jumbo to cover up the chance that the remaned gear box is wore out to begin with. Also there is no play by hand, only with jeep running and my wife turns the wheel while I look for movement is there a small amount of lateral movement. There is no rotational (is that a word) play at all. It did make the jeep drive almost like a new one. Before the new system the jeep wandered now it is very easy to keep it going in the right direction. Hope this helps.

That's interesting. I've always assumed that there was not supposed to be any lateral play, and in fact I replaced the steering gear on my 95 when I found it, and it seemed to improve the steering. However, I wouldn't be surprised to find that a tiny bit is permissible, even though it does make the steering a little numb on center.

I can understand Rumblebelly's concern, though, since it seems his Jeep has had a lot of front-end problems for its age and mileage. I wouldn't worry too much unless the steering is sloppy, but I'd still want to look very carefully down there, perhaps with someone else wiggling the wheel, to see if there's anything obvious.

Steering box???

rumblebelly

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Matthew Currie

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rumblebelly

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1096xj

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rumblebelly

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Matthew Currie

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