what did i bend

hey all.

two days ago my jeep had a good straight alignment on it, yesterday i hit some local zuki trails with my zuki friend. they are pretty sweet technical trails with deep water crossings, rock gardens, mud pits, pretty much everything.

hit a couple rough spots and used some skinny pedal to get out, no damage. made it thru pretty good, but now my steering wheel is off to the left when i drive straight. the jeep still tracks pretty straight, but the wheel is off. doesnt look like a bent tie rod or draglink, what should i look for?

-Tim

the collar on the drag link needs to be adjusted.

that is how to get the steering wheel centered again, but what could be the culprit as to why it is off centered to begin with?

-Tim

bent tie rod or drag link, put a straight edge to both

You more than likely lost some lift!
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=90143

$0.02

just had it aligned? or it was straight and now its bent?

Sounds to me like the drag link is a little loose and got turned alittle.

How far off is your steering wheel?
does your jeep return to straight whn you turn and let go?.. from both directions?

did you air down your tires at all?

wait, I could go on for days.

start by washing it good and looking for a solid paint scrape on a steering componant.
then check for a loose drag link
then just adjust the drag link and make the wheel straigt untill next time you get out done by a zuki :kissyou:

muduck18 said:

$0.02

just had it aligned? or it was straight and now its bent?

Sounds to me like the drag link is a little loose and got turned alittle.

How far off is your steering wheel?
does your jeep return to straight whn you turn and let go?.. from both directions?

did you air down your tires at all?

wait, I could go on for days.

start by washing it good and looking for a solid paint scrape on a steering componant.
then check for a loose drag link
then just adjust the drag link and make the wheel straigt untill next time you get out done by a zuki :kissyou:

Click to expand...

the steering wheel is only 15-20* off, it wasnt just aligned but it used to be straight. the toe is still right, so im leaning more toward the drag link. no solid smacks on the steering components. when i let go of the wheel, sometimes it tracks straight and sometimes it pulls left or right, its kinda random, i have 33" swampers that arent balanced anymore..

it was a pretty badass zuk, btw ARBs front and rear, 5:1 t-case 4:56:1 gears etc...i just met the guy on the trail, but i sure made him smile ear to ear, i dont think he'd ever seen a XJ wheel before.

-Tim

It's possible that you did not bend anything. Check the draglink and tierod with a straight edge. If they appear straight then your front end is probably sitting a little lower than it was before your wheeling trip.
If you cycled the suspension a lot with lots of stuffing and drooping then it probably settled downward a little. Just adjust the drap link to recenter the steering wheel. My RE 5.5" lift did this a couple different times when it was still fairly new.

Settling of the front suspension would cause the front axle to move toward the passenger side (track bar becomes effectively too long), resulting in a non-centered steering wheel. Check to see if your axle is centered under the front.

hey all,
under closer inspection, the draglink is hella bent. between where the tie rod connects to the draglink and the steering stabilizer attaches, it is bowed forwards like a damn bow n arrow. it bending forwards leads me to believe it was not impacted on a rock, but just over stressed.

which leads me to my next question...with the draglink bent towards the centerline, inside where the tie rod connects, this will not affect my tire alignment? if my geometry is correct, this only throws off the steering wheel, but does not change steering except maybe at full lock, similar to hitting a bump or lowering ride height would...

eyeballing it shows that my tires are toed slightly outwards in the front, which is how they were before, not sure on the measurements.

-Tim

also, im thinkin about going with rustys tie rod conversion. anybody think this is a good setup?

-Tim

jeepnuts311 said:

also, im thinkin about going with rustys tie rod conversion. anybody think this is a good setup?

-Tim

Click to expand...

It sucks,

This style.



On rusty's kit the drag link attaches to the tierod not to the PAssenger side tierod end. And you push on the steering wheel the drag link pushes ont he tierod and rotes it. all the force goes on the little jam nut on the passenger side tierod end. The Jam nut cant hold it so its always slopply.
Factory steering tierod ends have the drag link attache to the PS side Tierod so no force is on the jam nut and its less sloppy. It would be best to get a new PS knucle and do a ture high steer but thats alot more money.



There are 3/4in 16 size tierod ends like the rusty's kit or 1ton 7/8-18 tierod ends, if your running less back spaced wheels or spacers you cand buy a tappered reimer and bore out your pittman arm and knuckles to accept the 7/8in rod ends.


(1 of these) ES2233L $25.99 pass side tie rod 7/8"-18 WITH HOLE FOR DRAG LINK, for T-geometry steering. Application: 85 Blazer

(1 of these) ES2234R $23.99 DS tierod Shorter then the drag links, driver side tie rod 7/8"-18Application: 85 Blazer


(1 of these) ES2026R $20.99 high misalignment drag link Pitman arm side end Are 7/8"-18 about 7in long with 3in of threads.

ES2010L $40 Shorter then the drag links, 7/8-18 right and left hand thread TRE
Or
ES2027L $18.99 high misalignment drag link end Passenger side 7/8"-18 about 7in long with 3in of threads, BIG taper

Get some 1.5in 250 wall DOM and some weld in inserts and your steering will be good to go..

rather than spend 260 for a rusty's deal I would support JCR
http://www.jcroffroad.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=1TNST&Category_Code=S6
spend another $40 and get 1-ton hardware.

87manche said:

rather than spend 260 for a rusty's deal I would support JCR
http://www.jcroffroad.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=1TNST&Category_Code=S6
spend another $40 and get 1-ton hardware.

Click to expand...

The XJ knuckles can be drilled to 5/8in and reamed from the top rather then from the bottom like factory. That is what we did on my buddies ZJ and that is why we needed the less BS rims, or 1/4in spacers in his case. I think he ran 15X8in stelies with greater then 4in BS, most run 3.5 or 4in BS stealies and they should be fine (but measure.)

i think i like the JCR setup better anyways, but for now, my question remains...will it hurt to drive with my draglink bent? it is bent between the steering stabilizer and the tierod. it doesnt seem like my alignment was affected, and my tires are still toed out a little. i think its mainly the annoyance of having the steering wheel a little off to the left.

-Tim

If your drag link is bent only between the connection point for the stabilizer and where the the tie rod connects to the drag link, alignment should not have been affected; however, you say you have a "toe-out" condition. Nothing destroys tires quicker than incorrect toe. Toe on the Cherokee should be "in" ~ 1/8"--not "out" at all. I think a toe-out condition would have been there before you bent the drag link. If the bend is centered on the tie-rod/drag link connection (most likely), resulting change would be toe-in. Anyway, correct your toe-in before driving if you want to save your tires.

ok, just to make sure we are on the same page, when i say "toe out" i mean that the front of the tires are pointed slightly away from each other, and the rear of the front tires are pointed slightly toward each other.

also, my jeep had (until last week) a NP242, which does in fact, require different toe than the NP231 models did. this has to do with the "full-time" option. i do not know the specs, but it has always been "toed out" like it is, and i have had these swampers for a year. they are pretty worn down, but not more than i would expect.

-tim

I recall reading some where that the toe-in setting is slightly different between the full-time and part-time transfer cases. But I'm pretty sure toe-out is incorrect. I'd check an FSM to be sure. But again, bending a tie-rod or drag link shouldn't cause toe-out--so maybe your contention that the drag link bent between the tie rod connection and the Pittman arm is correct, implying only the steering wheel is off.