• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Steering shaft hoot

Agreen

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Charleston
Before I go tearing out the steering shaft, does anyone know where to find the replacement parts for the lower shaft boot and bearings?

When it gets cold outside, it makes this awful hooting noise. Sounds like a dying owl. Or maybe a walrus with a stomach ache. Some days it even sounds like Chewbacca tossing his cookies. I've tried to lubricate it with bearing grease, I've tried white lithium grease, WD-40, transmission assembly lube, pretty much anything I'd have on the shelf. It goes away for a short time, but it comes right back.

I checked all my typical places, but I didn't see anything. Rock Auto, Quadtratec, all the box chain stores, nothing lists that rubber boots from what I can tell. And I figured I might as well do the shaft bearings while I'm that far into it.

If you can't tell, I'm sick of hearing this noise.

Thanks in advance
 
I used spray silicone on mine seems to have fixed the problem.
 
Yep. Tried that too.

I'm going to find this thing and fix it right. Like I said, I've tried lubing it up with anything I can find. It just comes back later. And louder.

What I did find was the part number on xjjeeps. The listing is for part number 55314949AB, which is unavailable at seemingly every dealership around. But when I searched just the numbers, I found that factorychryslerparts. com lists it as the steering shaft seal for the TJ wrangler, and not the XJ. So it LOOKS like they might be the same part. And since finding TJ parts is generally easier than finding XJ parts, I might still be in luck. Back to the search.
 
Well, I guess I'm going to have to figure something else out. The part seems to not exist any more. I searched some wrangler forums and found a lot of people complaining of the same thing, a lot of people getting pissy at each other, and no real solutions.

At this point I'm thinking there might be 2 possibilities. 1) Rubber has transferred to the shaft, and the subsequent rubber on rubber contact sounds like elks mating. 2) The steering shaft is polished and as we all know, rubber makes funny noises on polished smooth surfaces. I'm going to try to buff it a little with some scotch brite or some fine sandpaper. Hopefully that will either get rid of the rubber buildup or at least knock the glaze off and quiet things down.

FWIW, I'm not the only one who has had the sound come back quickly after lubing it up. You'd think as much of an issue as this is that there would be a proper fix for it by now?
 
Back
Top