Need help with my twitchy steering.

I've got a 97 with 180k on the dash, small lift on 30s that I drive roughly 120 miles a day. The whole front end is less than a year old, front and rear suspension less than 3 months old, it handles great, steering box is tight, everything is as it should be. That's where the problem comes in, the slightest movement in either direction will cause my jeep to jerk. I'm afraid if I were to sneeze I would be in the ditch, my wife won't even drive it because of how sensitive the steering is. I'm at a loss, I've looked into steering box swaps but nothing in all my hours of searching has come back with anything more than box a is tougher than box b. I really just want to know how to make this heep more managable on road, I'm just tired wrangling this crackhead steering wheel.

specs and pics of the steering system? all OEM? aftermarket?

box brand/type?
pump brand/type?
linkage brand/type?

Has the alignment been checked?
Too little caster will make it twitchy.

All moog parts, alignment was done after I replaced the front end. Box, pump, and linkage are all OEM, and it tracks straight as a arrow. The only thing that's not factory are zj tie rods, and poly sway bar bushings, and moog upcountry coils. The only parts I haven't replaced are the control arms and track bar.

Sounds really strange, I have a 2-3" lift on 30's and its solid as a rock. I bought it with a budget boost and straightened all that mess out, and before and after, still solid as a rock. Sounds like the box to me, but more details would be helpful. If the box is too tight, all bets are off as to how it handles... you may consider getting a JY box just to see how it changes things.

There is no play whatsoever in my steering wheel, if you move it at all the jeep is going with it. I can't remember what I adjusted the steering gear too, but it was somewhere in the low inch pounds. This isn't really something new, I've been dealing with it for months, I just finally had enough of it. Ive kicked around the idea of backing my adjuster off a little bit and seeing if that helps, but I feel like all that would do is leave me with a dead spot.

What about your sway bar bushings and linkage? When you replaced the box did you replace the aluminum spacer?

Tire pressure can be a factor sometimes. But I agree with lazyxj about the caster.

The last time mine was twitchy it turned out to be the top Trac bar end. Had a buddy push a fender sideways with is rear end and I could see movement on the top Trac bar end. I also noticed my steering wheel was sometimes a little off center when the tires/wheels were straight.

The bottom bolt/mount on the Trac bar can also be an issue. Not sure if the XJ is the same, but my YJ had the wrong bolt in there, fit right, looked right, but the bolt shank was too small. I came to the conclusion a standard SAE bolt, with a standard shank, was the wrong bolt.

It looks like you replaced a bunch of components, adjusted the steering gear, and aligned it. What was the reason for all this work in the first place? How was the vehicle steering before that?

My first vote, too, would be for a caster adjustment. After that, I'd maybe dial a little slop back into your steering gear.

if by "adjusted the steering gear" you mean you tightened the preload adjuster on top,

IMO that is most likely the problem. tightening that can put entirely too much preload on the lash gear, will manifest itself as a "tight feeling box" but it will make it twitchy since essentially you are changing how much pressure is needed to turn the internals of the box.

if tightening that was necessary to prevent the box from feeling loose then you need to rebuild the box.

Adjusting the box can yield an inverted XJ. Do you have the paper from your alignment? If so, what does it say about the Caster?

Raine883 said:

There is no play whatsoever in my steering wheel, if you move it at all the jeep is going with it. I can't remember what I adjusted the steering gear too, but it was somewhere in the low inch pounds. This isn't really something new, I've been dealing with it for months, I just finally had enough of it. Ive kicked around the idea of backing my adjuster off a little bit and seeing if that helps, but I feel like all that would do is leave me with a dead spot.

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Adjustment of the lash in the steering box is not done by inch pounds. It is done by cycling the steering wheel (input shaft) back and forth through the midrange of the box with nothing connected to the pitman arm. You adjust it in until you just barely feel it tightening as you pass through center, then back off the adjustment about 20 degrees. This is a critical adjustment. Not done properly can lead to the box freezing up on you while you are driving and can result in all kinds of bad things, including but not limited to .... death.

Having said that, if there is no change in how hard it is to turn as you go through center now, it will not be the adjustment. You really need to look at the caster. A pix of the driveshaft angle in the front and the angle of the C's up front might help.

Without enough caster, the vehicle will want to go any direction except straight, no matter how tight the box is. With any lifted XJ, the trade off between getting the u-joint angles on drive shaft within reason and the caster can be interesting. That is why you hear about people rotating the C's. Before getting radical, I would think about putting some shims in the lower control bracket adjustment or if you have adjustable control arms, lengthening the lowers a bit.

I guess I forgot to mention this in my first post, but its a 2wd, so driveline angles aren't causing any issues. All the write ups I,ve found even on here said to drop the pitman arm and adjust to 5 in lbs so thats what I did. I have kicked the idea of adjustable lca's but wasn't sure how much they'd help me out.

LCA's shouldn't matter, if you have a 2-3" lift the adjustment is only 5/16" or so. I've had it both ways and no noticeable difference driving. If everything in the steering & track bar is tight, I think you need to take a strong look at the box.

Raine883 said:

I guess I forgot to mention this in my first post, but its a 2wd, so driveline angles aren't causing any issues. All the write ups I,ve found even on here said to drop the pitman arm and adjust to 5 in lbs so thats what I did. I have kicked the idea of adjustable lca's but wasn't sure how much they'd help me out.

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Did you find the printout from the alignment? That will tell us if it is a caster problem or not.

The other thing would be if the tires were toe'd out. Again that should be on the printout. It is pretty easy to verify that with only a tape measure. Jack up the front so both tires are off the ground. Measure the distance between the rims of the tires, both on the front of the rims and he rear of the rims. Ideally the front should be roughly 1/8" closer in the front than the rear.

old_man said:

Did you find the printout from the alignment? That will tell us if it is a caster problem or not.

The other thing would be if the tires were toe'd out. Again that should be on the printout. It is pretty easy to verify that with only a tape measure. Jack up the front so both tires are off the ground. Measure the distance between the rims of the tires, both on the front of the rims and he rear of the rims. Ideally the front should be roughly 1/8" closer in the front than the rear.

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Ill try and dig it up, would a ride height difference from front to rear throw off my steering geometry? My rear sits a solid 2 inches lower than the front since installing the hd leafs and springs.

Probably not significantly. A lot of XJ's have sagging rear leafs and nobody comes on here and reports there steering is shit. In every case I've ever heard of that has a steering box bolted to the frame, steering is shit either because the frame bracket bent or broke or the box is done - whether its Dodge trucks or Mercedes diesels or Jeeps, the answer has always been the same. Steering boxes are supposed to have a slight amount of play in them. If they are too tight something is wrong. They will never be as "tight" as a rack & pinion. Both will provide excellent steering when working properly.

Also, I would listen to anything Tom (old_man) says as he is very smart and has a lot of experience rebuilding steering boxes. While I am not expert, I will tell you that I have talked to various very experienced people over the years and they always tell me the same thing. I'm talking shop owners/foreman here where they are the only ones in the shop that can roll all the ball bearings into the box...

I have no problem believing my steering box is on its last leg, this xj was seriously neglected by the previous owner. There is a 98 zj and a 01 Durango at the local pick and pull, both roll overs, that I've looked at, the zj has about 110k on it and I can build a brace no problem, I just don't know which box would be better for a daily driver.