RockTracXJ
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Colorado Springs
My steering has been bad since I've owned the Jeep, just floppy, sloppy bad. I could easily turn the wheel from 10 to 2 without turning the wheels a bit. I also had no low RPM power, so something was going bad, the pump or gear.
So I finally got the coin together and got a remanufactured pump and a Durango box. I replaced them both and in bleeding the pump I noticed that it was still sloppy. I looked closer while someone turned the wheel back and forth and realized it was the steering intermediate shaft. Here's a picture of it in two pieces (more on that later).
The problem turned out to be the bushing type thingy at the top of the shaft. The shaft comes up and enters the rubber part which is all surrounded by a metal sleeve. The metal of the shaft doesn't actually contact the metal sleeve of the upper u-joint part during normal operation, only during sharp jerks or a lot of pressure. I assume they did this to absorb shock. Except mine was quite worn and turned rather freely. In the picture below, notice the tab (there's also one on the other side) of the shaft and how it would contact the metal sleeve under pressure.
So, I headed to the local u-pull and pay (which now has a new building AND a paved parking lot!) figuring that I could surely find one. Well, the Cherokees there are either pre-90 or picked clean, but I happened to stumble across a '95 that had the shaft there, and it looked just like mine, a '94. So I pull it out and am as happy as a pig in mud. I get home and pull mine out and compare the two. The one from the '95 is an inch short! Well crap. I was quite tempted to drill a hole through that damn bushing thingy and just run a bolt through it all. But I was in luck! The intermediate shaft is really two pieces as shown above, and the upper parts were exactly the same (the part with the bushing). So I hammered both shafts apart and took my longer lower shaft and put it into the upper shaft from the junk yard. I felt quite fortunate that I didn't have to delay the problem further while trying to find another shaft, and didn't have to drill through it all. I've got it all back together now and even centered the steering wheel and fixed my alignment (toe). Compared to before the old beast is just a pleasure to drive; as far as the steering goes, anyway.
So, if you've got a case of the sloppy steering, give that intermediate shaft a look. And if you need a new one, make sure it's the correct length.
So I finally got the coin together and got a remanufactured pump and a Durango box. I replaced them both and in bleeding the pump I noticed that it was still sloppy. I looked closer while someone turned the wheel back and forth and realized it was the steering intermediate shaft. Here's a picture of it in two pieces (more on that later).
The problem turned out to be the bushing type thingy at the top of the shaft. The shaft comes up and enters the rubber part which is all surrounded by a metal sleeve. The metal of the shaft doesn't actually contact the metal sleeve of the upper u-joint part during normal operation, only during sharp jerks or a lot of pressure. I assume they did this to absorb shock. Except mine was quite worn and turned rather freely. In the picture below, notice the tab (there's also one on the other side) of the shaft and how it would contact the metal sleeve under pressure.
So, I headed to the local u-pull and pay (which now has a new building AND a paved parking lot!) figuring that I could surely find one. Well, the Cherokees there are either pre-90 or picked clean, but I happened to stumble across a '95 that had the shaft there, and it looked just like mine, a '94. So I pull it out and am as happy as a pig in mud. I get home and pull mine out and compare the two. The one from the '95 is an inch short! Well crap. I was quite tempted to drill a hole through that damn bushing thingy and just run a bolt through it all. But I was in luck! The intermediate shaft is really two pieces as shown above, and the upper parts were exactly the same (the part with the bushing). So I hammered both shafts apart and took my longer lower shaft and put it into the upper shaft from the junk yard. I felt quite fortunate that I didn't have to delay the problem further while trying to find another shaft, and didn't have to drill through it all. I've got it all back together now and even centered the steering wheel and fixed my alignment (toe). Compared to before the old beast is just a pleasure to drive; as far as the steering goes, anyway.
So, if you've got a case of the sloppy steering, give that intermediate shaft a look. And if you need a new one, make sure it's the correct length.
