First Post, Need steering Help!

Hey guy's, I never post anything I always use the search and gather information. Anyway, I recently did a full width 79 F-250 D44 and full width 14 bolt swap. Using a TNT Truss with OTK GM 1 Ton steering, Hydro Assist, TNT Y-link on 6" RC springs with 2" Teraflex spacers, 37x12.50x17 Iroks on 17" Soft 8's.

Every thing in the front end is new from the diff to the brakes. Everything is tight, triple checked, I have measured and squared the front and rear to the jeep. I set caster at 5* w/ 0 toe jeep wanders, I set caster to 7* jeep wanders, I set the toe to 1/4" toe in, it wanders. I have check all tre's they are new and fine, I have rotated the tires, took knuckles back off and checked the Ball joints and axle joints, all fine. Wheel bearings are tight, brakes dont grab, steering box is brand new, with a brace. I am out of idea's.

The steering shaft does have some slop in the bottom U-Joint and the plastic is no longer in the shaft so it acts as a slip shaft. Could it be the cheap soft 8 wheels? Could it be the steering shaft, I am out of idea's.....
Anyone interested in a 96 XJ???

FJCruisinXJ said:

Hey guy's, I never post anything I always use the search and gather information. Anyway, I recently did a full width 79 F-250 D44 and full width 14 bolt swap. Using a TNT Truss with OTK GM 1 Ton steering, Hydro Assist, TNT Y-link on 6" RC springs with 2" Teraflex spacers, 37x12.50x17 Iroks on 17" Soft 8's.

Every thing in the front end is new from the diff to the brakes. Everything is tight, triple checked, I have measured and squared the front and rear to the jeep. I set caster at 5* w/ 0 toe jeep wanders, I set caster to 7* jeep wanders, I set the toe to 1/4" toe in, it wanders. I have check all tre's they are new and fine, I have rotated the tires, took knuckles back off and checked the Ball joints and axle joints, all fine. Wheel bearings are tight, brakes dont grab, steering box is brand new, with a brace. I am out of idea's.

The steering shaft does have some slop in the bottom U-Joint and the plastic is no longer in the shaft so it acts as a slip shaft. Could it be the cheap soft 8 wheels? Could it be the steering shaft, I am out of idea's.....
Anyone interested in a 96 XJ???

Click to expand...

Sure, I'll take it off your hands...

How's the frame around the steering box? What're you running for shackles? How's the rear axle? Spring hangers? Tried a professional alignment? Don't know if anything I listed could cause wandering, but thought I'd throw it out there...

Frame is great, TNT stiffner with 3/16 TMR front stiffner, JCR unibody tie ins and Crok inner steering plate with spacer.

Rear shackles are RE Boomerangs with the shackle relocation brackets sold on here.

I've got the "anti-wrap" spring perches, the hangers are in good condition.
No on the Pro alignment, 20+ miles to nearest, Im not driving this weeble wobble there.

Forgot to mention, I've got bilstein 7100's in the front and 5100's in the rear.

FJCruisinXJ said:

Hey guy's, I never post anything I always use the search and gather information. Anyway, I recently did a full width 79 F-250 D44 and full width 14 bolt swap. Using a TNT Truss with OTK GM 1 Ton steering, Hydro Assist, TNT Y-link on 6" RC springs with 2" Teraflex spacers, 37x12.50x17 Iroks on 17" Soft 8's.

Every thing in the front end is new from the diff to the brakes. Everything is tight, triple checked, I have measured and squared the front and rear to the jeep. I set caster at 5* w/ 0 toe jeep wanders, I set caster to 7* jeep wanders, I set the toe to 1/4" toe in, it wanders. I have check all tre's they are new and fine, I have rotated the tires, took knuckles back off and checked the Ball joints and axle joints, all fine. Wheel bearings are tight, brakes dont grab, steering box is brand new, with a brace. I am out of idea's.

The steering shaft does have some slop in the bottom U-Joint and the plastic is no longer in the shaft so it acts as a slip shaft. Could it be the cheap soft 8 wheels? Could it be the steering shaft, I am out of idea's.....
Anyone interested in a 96 XJ???

Click to expand...

What kind of steering are you running? I assume an inverted T low steer setup?
Maybe that would be your problem.

Gm 1 ton tre's, inverted T over the knuckle.

Well, that would certainly contribute to a dead spot on center feel(wandering).
Also, if your hydro assist isn't fully dialed in and it acts a split second behind your steering inputs you will feel like you are constantly chasing it and counter correcting. This causes all sorts of vauge funky steering feelings.

It does the same with the hydro assist removed. What steering setup would you recommend? I do not want to go high steer. Also, with the hyrdro assist removed or with it on I do not have return to center, could that be the steering setup that I am running???

FJCruisinXJ said:

Also, with the hyrdro assist removed or with it on I do not have return to center, could that be the steering setup that I am running???

Click to expand...

That usually has to do with poor caster. The more you rotate the(top of) knuckles to the rear you'll have better return to center, the more they're rotated forward the less return to center you'll have. Less return to center causes wandering and vauge "on center" feel.
Honestly, I'd never run low steer with an inverted T setup but that's just my preference.
For reference, I have hi steer, inverted T steering, and Chevy one ton TREs. When I put my angle fandanglodometer on the top of my hi steer arm I read 7.5 degrees(top of knuckle rotated back). My POS drives great, good return to center, and I have over 50,000 miles on this setup.

Yes I know all about caster and such, mechanic by trade. Right now I have 7* positive caster. Originally I set my caster to 5* positive and welded the truss on level. After getting everything back in/on the Jeep with a few miles on it, I then removed the knuckles to be sure my caster was good, I then added 2* to make it 7 to see if that helped, which it did not.

For future reference, Toe 1/4" in, Caster +7*,I have went over everything for the 10th time, every thing is tight, front axle is square with frame and centered, rear axle is square and centered, all bushings are like new, new steering shaft installed, checked all of the wheel bearings, brakes, ball joints again.

Wheeled it for a few hours yesterday, seems as though on dirt/rock roads it handles great. As soon as you get it on the black top it starts wandering again. I am going to build a heim joint steering setup with heim joint trac bar, have a hair of bumpsteer, trac bar and drag link are just a few degrees off.

Looking into how rear axle wrap can effect steering. I believe I have an issue there, 8" spring perches but the original shim in the leaf pack is only 5-6" not allowing full contact of spring perch. Overall width of rear axle is 2 3/4" narrower than front, wondering if that might have something to do with the wandering aswell.

Not sure on timing the hydro assist, I turned the wheel all the way to the driverside, with ram fully extended and tighted down the clamp.....

Off to rattle somethings around in my head....

Haven't got anything from Ballistic Fab yet, should be here next week for the steering and trac bar setup.

I did jack the front up, removed the TRE's and checked to make sure the balljoints worked properly and they do. Once I put the TRE's back, I tried turning the wheel with the engine off, very tight, so I removed the hydro assist ram, no change, still very tight. Doesn't appear that I have any binding, maybe the tre's are way to tight? That will be fixed with heims next week.