Steering Return to Center Issue

This past weekend I was out wheeling, and when I went to hit the road after the trip I found my steering had stopped returning to center. It might be slightly stiffer to turn, but I'm not positive.

I'm trying to find out what could happen during an offroad trip that would affect it (IE: This shouldn't be something from improper camber).I see two possibilities:
1) Something is stiff or dragging.
2) Something internal in the steering gear/pump

I've checked all the TREs and 3/4 are pretty new. Ball joints and U-joints seem fine. Visually nothing looks terribly wrong. Control arms are straight, etc. I'm looking for possible solutions that I haven't tried. Can a weak pump cause this? My pump is a very new AZ reman, so I don't necessarily trust it, but the steering seems strong.

Thanks.

Your losing lift,as it does it changes your center position,quite common!

RCP Phx said:

Your losing lift,as it does it changes your center position,quite common!

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It's not the location of 'center' that is the issue, it's the steering's ability to return to center. IE: When you make a turn and let the wheel go it returns to the center.

I have a similar problem. When my steering wheel returns to center, it sort of jerks to center instead of a smooth return. Same issue?

I can't say that mine jerks to center, as it doesn't return at all. I can set the wheel turning in a direction and will keep turning that direction without touching the wheel.
I'd venture a guess to say that if it returns to center in a jerky fashion that it's at least mostly working correct and probably not a major component like steering box or pump, but that's still just a guess. I've run out of simple things to check on my own rig.

On my CJ-7 it was the ball joints. It was slow to center, and very slightly stiff to turn. With new ball joints, I let go of the wheel after the the turn is made and the steering wheel spins right around.

My ball joints are 3 month old Spicer units. I took apart the steering yesterday and turned both knuckles by hand and didn't notice anything unusual and there's no slop in them.
Is there a better way to test them?

Mine is acting similar. Mine is the trackbar. The joint at the frame is loose. Check the trackbar.

zith said:

My ball joints are 3 month old Spicer units. I took apart the steering yesterday and turned both knuckles by hand and didn't notice anything unusual and there's no slop in them.
Is there a better way to test them?

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I would get under the front end and have someone turn the wheels back and forth. Look for any play or slop in all the steering components. Sometimes you need to take all the weight or stress off of the tie rods and ball joints before you can find the bad ones.

I had a friend who should have known what he was doing watch while I was moving the wheel. None the less I was just under there and had someone else move the wheel and there was some play in the track bar from the bolts not being tight enough, so those are now cranked down real tight.
This has given me a minimal amount of return to center, but it will end up about a 1/4 wheel's turn from true center in either direction.

This did cause me to wonder about the steering gear adjustment on the top of the box, and while I didn't follow the official method of adjustment, I used the rule of thumb of tightening it all the way and backing it off 1/4 turn. Didn't help or hurt.

Check this out ... http://www.chevelles.com/techref/PowerStrgGear(4).jpg