Bump steer...what to do

01 XJ, 6" lift (SA no drop brackets), 33" tires. I bought this thing built like this and it has some serious steering issues. I can't recenter the steering wheel because its either straight, turned left or tirned right while going down the road. Never in the same place. Steering feels tight and responds good, so I don't believe its the steering box.

The trackbar mount (axle side) has been redrilled and trackbar (stock) has been moved towards the driver side about 3/4 inch. I have a TJ and on those the trackbar and draglink are supposed to be parralel (sp?) but on the XJ the trackbar is below the draglink. Does the same geometry of the trackbar and draglink setup go for XJs also? If so, that would mean I need to get a dropped pitman arm for it, correct? Next and last question, if I need the dropped pitman arm, how much drop do I need? Thanks for any help. I don't know squat about XJs, oh well....time to learn.

bump steer is caused by poor draglink angle. You probably are in need of a drop pitman arm.

you might also want to look into getting rid of the stock trac bar... at 6" thats way too much stress for the stock joint... And YES the drag link and trac bar geometry should be the same or at least close, just like your TJ.

I figured as much on the geometry issue. I'm going to replace the track bar with and adjustable on sooner or later (got to get the TJ where I want it first..it's mine). The girlfriend likes the way it drives, but I'm thinkin I better get it fixed because she thinks the highways are a race track...one speed is all she knows; FAST.

How much of a drop pitman arm do I need? I read the other thread aobut the ZJ V8 pitman arm, would that be enough drop for this? I can post some pics of the steering parts if that would help.

If you get the trackbar issue squared away, you shouldn't need the drop pitman arm.

Don't ignore the steep control arm angles. Your combination of short arms and no drop brackets at 6" is also contributing to bump steer.

MaXJohnson said:

Don't ignore the steep control arm angles. Your combination of short arms and no drop brackets at 6" is also contributing to bump steer.

Click to expand...

yup yup yup

what is the pinion angle?
the castor angle? <--- this will fawk with steering... my castor is 1* - SCARRY!

Update on this crap. I think I found teh biggest problem here, the track bar bolt at the axle side (relocated by drilling a new hole) was loose. It's been fairly loose for a while as it has elongated the hole a little. I was checking the front end out today trying to find this annoying rattle and grabbed the trackbar and, well I can shake it. Here's the problem, the bolt is "tight" so to speak but when I went to remove it to see how bad the hole was that fangled nut thing on the back broke off as soon as it touched the axle mount.

New problem, how do I go about getting that nut off the back side now? I've tried vice grips, got a decent bite with a wrench but as soon as I applied torque the wrench popped off. I was going to remove it and get a new bolt from the hardware store, but i can't get the damn thing off now. Anyone have an adjustable trackbar they want to sell cheap?