dead spot in steering

so, i just did a rough country 6.5" long arm lift on my 2000 xj, with the old 3" lift i had a little slop in the steering but nothing to worry about. Today i finished up the lift and had the jeep towed up to firestone for an alignment. i test drive it around the block a few times, now, when i am going straight, the jeep will wander left or right with the steering wheel straight, if it wander right i turn left to adjust, the steering wheel has to be turned about45 degrees before it will begin to adjust the wheels back to straight, after a few minutes it will do it the other way. when i make a left turn, then turn back to center, the wheel is still turned about 45 to the left but the jeep will be going straight, it does the opposite when turning right. I have done some reading on bumpsteer and caster, but I am at a loose, i have a heard time reading and understanding, i need pictures.......

I would do a front end inspection first, serch, been covered a million times.. Did you get a print out of the alignment? Whats the caster set at?

whitexj98 said:

I would do a front end inspection first, serch, been covered a million times.. Did you get a print out of the alignment? Whats the caster set at?

Click to expand...

Good idea to have everything checked for wear. And it is a good idea to see where the caster is set at now......

However, while bad caster settings will cause wandering, they won't cause a dead spot in the steering....

As far as I know the dead spot is caused by lifting the Jeep and retaining the stock steering set up. Referred to as the inverted "y" setup. When you turn the steering wheel, the tie rod/drag link will roll forward or backward until it hits the limit of the tie rod end. Then the steering input affects the direction of the front wheels thereby causing the dead spot.

The fix? Well there are several. But there is no easy answer..... I still haven't decided how to fix mine.

Some of the things affecting a decent fix are safety, cost, Ackerman angles, etc.

There won't be any dead spot with the inverted Y style stock (or custom) steering. The drag link is connected to the knuckle directly and can't roll. If you have a dead spot you have worn parts or loose bolts and you need to find out what. If it wanders, like won't stay going straight, then you could have too little caster. But, what you are describing is a dead spot, which could be in your steering box. Inspect the track bar mounts, both frame and axle, for loose bolts, and check for play in the steering box. If you already had the alignment done, they should have felt the wandering and inspected for the problem and given you a recommendation for repairing it.

another vote on caster being out of whack, after dealing with 4 tears od either stock or crap rugged ridge steering , I went Iron rock offroad bolt on steering, if you dont mind heims its perfect, no dead spot, better than stock feel. tight.

To check for a problem with the steering gear, have someone get inside and gently rock the wheel from side to side, just through the range of the dead spot. Feel the output and input shafts. Any movement in the input shaft should be reflected in the output shaft.