Let me see if I can put together some inf. on steering.
Why change? As you lift your Jeep higher, the TRE's (Tie Rod Ends) and DRE (drag link ends) sit at much more of an angle and can run out of movement as the axle moves around. Also, as the stock inverted Y steering gets pulled down with lift, there is a tendency for the Jeep to wander and simply not steer as well as stock. Toe will change with axle movement too. Finally, as you wheel in difficult terrain, the tie rod and drag link can hit objects and get damaged.
TRE (Tie Rod End) is generally a factory style tapered stud with a ball that sits inside an outer cap that has a threaded stud coming off the side. If it is called a Tie Rod End, it is supposed to be for the TIE ROD which on our stock xj's is the straight rod connecting to the drivers side steering knuckle. If it is a DRE, it is supposed to be for a Drag Link. On our stock xj's, the Drag link is the bent bar connecting to the passengers side steering knuckle. TRE's and DRE's come in many shapes and sizes.
Heim joints are actually spherical joints. I don't know the specifics of these as I have never actually used them. In any case, they have a hole in the center of a rounded ball type device. A bolt through this ball will bolt the joint to whatever you want to bolt it to...such as the steering arm on the steering knuckle in place of a TRE. The ball is surrounded by a metal piece that has a threaded portion coming off the side. Heims come in many sizes also. They also often use tapered spacers between the bolt and the ball to allow more movement between the ball and the threaded stud piece.
There are many different ways to modify the steering on an xj. Here are a few:
1) Flip the tie rod end above the drivers side steering knuckle. This will raise the tie rod a couple inches and make it more parallel to the ground on a lifted rig. The taper in the steering knuckle needs to be reversed so it comes in from the top. There is a company that makes a taper flip kit just for this job. It does require a bit of welding.
2) Use a RHD (Right Hand Drive) xj drag link coming in to the top of the passengers side steering knuckle using another flip kit for the taper. This would usually be done in conjunction with option #1.
3) Use a ZJ tie rod as it is beefier than the XJ tie rod I believe.
4) Use Currie Enterprizes Tie Rod and Drag link as they are beefier than the stock XJ components.
5) Use one of the many stronger stock replacement tie rods.
6) Use a dropped pitman arm to lower that end of the drag link.
7) Switch to a crossover steering setup. This means that you have one tie rod going from knuckle to knuckle and a separate drag link going from the pitman arm to the passengers side steering knuckle. This can easily be accomplished by using heims and putting the tie rod under the steering knuckles and the drag link on top of the passengers side steering knuckle.
8) Switch to various methods of WJ steering such as a drag link from the upper mounting point on the passengers side WJ steering knuckle to the pitman arm and then running a separate tie rod from the lower mounting point on the passengers side WJ steering knuckle to the stock drivers side steering knuckle. THis can be over the steering knuckles or under. Over gives greater clearance. A common setup is to use WJ tie rod ends for the links with threaded tubes for the tie rod and the drag link. I know Down East Offroad and Mark Hinkley (JKS) use these pieces. Some have installed RHD (Right Hand Drive) WJ steering knuckles on the drivers side as well as LHD (Left Hand Drive) WJ steering knuckles on the passengers side and then use a single tie rod going from upper mounting point to upper mounting point. THe drag link then comes into the tie rod near the passengers side.
9) Install waggoneer style steering that uses a straight tie rod from stock steering knuckle to steering knuckle with the drag link coming into the tie rod near the passengers side. This is switching to an inverted T style linkage. YJ's use this style also. Many folks build this setup using 1/2T Chevy steering parts with custom tubes for the actual drag link and the tie rod. The 1/2 Ton DRE's and TRE's are much heavier than stock xj pieces. The tapered stud is also larger. It is pretty easy to run a new taper in the stock xj steering arms from the top using a taper reamer. The holes are oversized from stock till the 1/2 ton pieces fit.
10) Install one of the steering kits that use a custom bracket that bolts onto the stock xj steering knuckles and pretty much mirrors the WJ method.
Something to keep in mind when modifying the steering is that the track bar should run as parallel to the drag link as possible to avoid bump steer. Bump steer is steering of the Jeep caused by the track bar pushing the axle in a different arc than the arc traveled by the drag link. When moving the drag link to the top of the steering arm or up to a WJ arm mounting place, the common thing to do is to move the track bar mount at the axle end up till the track bar runs parallel to the drag link. JKS makes a pretty nifty weld on bracket that accomplishes this task with a minimum of fuss.
There are more methods to modify the xj steering to accomodate the downfalls of the stock linkage, but the above methods will get you started. SEARCH here as well as the WWW and you'll find pages and pages of inf. Also, keep in mind that clearance for things such as sway bar end links and track bars can be quite difficult to come by when modifying things. One has to cycle the suspension in all directions while cycling the steering right and left looking for contact between parts. Jeff
