Flighty steering help

TRLJNKY

TRLJNKY

New member
Ok. Need some further guidance please. A few weeks ago, I bent the hell out of my tie rod, stabilizer, and found my lower ball joints were smoked.

I replaced the ball joints, straightened the factory tie rod, and replaced the stabilizer with oem equivalent.

While doing the ball joints I torqued everything to spec to include the track bar.

Im also running spacers and a D30 with only a budget boost so factory springs and control arms.

Since replacing the ball joints, stabilizer, and fixing the tie rod I still notice that the front end seems flighty. Bump steer and and hwy speed shimmy is noticeable. When I turm the wheel I notice a clunking sound occasionally (Im sure I heard that before the incident). I cant find anything else noticeably wrong. Unit bearings seem fine.

I tossed it on my alignment machine at work and noticed my camber was at 1° on my left front (mild bent c possible). I dialed in my toe but also noticed my castor was off. It was in the 3° range and highlighted red. Im not an alignment tech so I may just take it in and get it rechecked with someone that does it all the time to be sure. But if my castor is off it could cause my bump steer or flighty issue correct? I have a mildly bent r/r lower ca but fronts look fine so not sure how Id knock my castor out.

BLUF, what else should I check? Im a mechanic by trade so its kinda frustrating me Im missing something possibly that is glaringly apparent.

Im on a budget so is it possible to start replacing with say EVO jj CA's without buying a whole kit to start the process? I know its prob more expensive in the long run but wifey would never let me plop 2k or more down on a lift in my foreseeable future and I still want to play with what I have. Run whatcha brung mentality. Thanks everyone.
 
Your caster should be around 4-4.5° if I'm not mistaken and, yes, it does make your steering flighty. Personally, I got a great deal on used EVO and Currie adjustable control arms and they fixed me up, but Core 4x4 sells good ones for pretty cheap. You can have them make them for you with JJs on both ends if you ask for them.

As far as the clunking goes, check the bushings and ends of all the steering and control arm links... I'm guessing you would've noticed if the tie rod ends were sloppy when you were fixing it, but maybe overlooked?

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
Your budget boost with stock arms is what made your caster at 3 but not being a mechanic not sure if 1 degree would make a huge difference? Honestly I watched Craigslist for quite awhile and finally found some Currie front lowers at a good price


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BaddestCross said:
Your caster should be around 4-4.5° if I'm not mistaken and, yes, it does make your steering flighty. Personally, I got a great deal on used EVO and Currie adjustable control arms and they fixed me up, but Core 4x4 sells good ones for pretty cheap. You can have them make them for you with JJs on both ends if you ask for them.

As far as the clunking goes, check the bushings and ends of all the steering and control arm links... I'm guessing you would've noticed if the tie rod ends were sloppy when you were fixing it, but maybe overlooked?

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
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JKbrick said:
Your budget boost with stock arms is what made your caster at 3 but not being a mechanic not sure if 1 degree would make a huge difference? Honestly I watched Craigslist for quite awhile and finally found some Currie front lowers at a good price


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Click to expand...
Ill def chase down the bushings in the steering. Thank you. The tie rod is fairly recent. Just replaced with OEM equivelent in the last couple of years. Seemed ok but Ill check again. Ill keep my eyes open for some arms. Just wasnt sure they would work on my current setup. Like I said, Ill run mine down to someone who does alignmemts all the time and get there readings. Who knows I could have screwed something up but was concerned that I may have bent the hell out of somethimg I cant see. I hit some rocks but not to the point of OMG i broke the shit out of it. It was crawl not at speed so not to worried about major damage.

Thanks for the heads up. Ill keep a look out.

aka cavfighter
 
Make sure your track bar bolts are torqued to 125 ft lbs, a loose track bar would cause all of those symptoms as well. Low caster won't cause your bump steer or clunk but will cause the flighty steering. Have a helper turn the wheel back in forth while you look for the clunk. Could be track bar end or axle ujoint. If you have more than 3.5" of lift, a drag link flip will help with bump steer. Any chance you bent the drag link?
 
WJCO said:
Make sure your track bar bolts are torqued to 125 ft lbs, a loose track bar would cause all of those symptoms as well. Low caster won't cause your bump steer or clunk but will cause the flighty steering. Have a helper turn the wheel back in forth while you look for the clunk. Could be track bar end or axle ujoint. If you have more than 3.5" of lift, a drag link flip will help with bump steer. Any chance you bent the drag link?
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Bent draglink is possible as it lower connection was in the same area of impact. I did torque it when I fixed the front end. Still running all stock with pucks. What I may have is worn bushings in my CA's or trackbar. Ill have to get some help and see if i can rule that out. Tried in my garage by myself but may need to supsend it with an assistant. Whats the best way to check? Under load or suspended? (Garage check has been under load) I have high miles. 165k so that is something that is possible.

aka cavfighter
 
I visibly cant tell that my draglink or trackbar is bent and thats comparing to my wifes 07 in the driveway.

aka cavfighter
 
TRLJNKY said:
Bent draglink is possible as it lower connection was in the same area of impact. I did torque it when I fixed the front end. Still running all stock with pucks. What I may have is worn bushings in my CA's or trackbar. Ill have to get some help and see if i can rule that out. Tried in my garage by myself but may need to supsend it with an assistant. Whats the best way to check? Under load or suspended? (Garage check has been under load) I have high miles. 165k so that is something that is possible.

aka cavfighter
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Leave it on the ground, start the engine, turn steering wheel from 10oclock to 2 o'clock back and forth. If you hook up a camera on a tripod, you can film each joint while you turn the steering wheel by yourself but it takes more time. It's best to have a helper. If there is movement in the parts, it will be obvious.
 
WJCO said:
Leave it on the ground, start the engine, turn steering wheel from 10oclock to 2 o'clock back and forth. If you hook up a camera on a tripod, you can film each joint while you turn the steering wheel by yourself but it takes more time. It's best to have a helper. If there is movement in the parts, it will be obvious.
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Ill see if I can get some help with that tomorrow. Thanks for the insight

aka cavfighter
 
Quick update: I just drove my wifes w/125k on it and it acts way better. Nice and tight on the freeway and over the manholes on the surface roads so yeah Ive got something worn or bent. Ill follow your advice WJCO and thanks everyone for input

aka cavfighter
 
Looks normal to me, they're supposed to flex. Those are hard to check properly. I've found if you hook up a video camera, then power brake the vehicle in drive and reverse, you'll be able to see if they have play or not, you can actually see the bolt moving in the bushing from it being worn out if they are.
 
WJCO said:
Looks normal to me, they're supposed to flex. Those are hard to check properly. I've found if you hook up a video camera, then power brake the vehicle in drive and reverse, you'll be able to see if they have play or not, you can actually see the bolt moving in the bushing from it being worn out if they are.
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Ok thanks for the feedback. Ill keep plugging away. Shook the whole thing down while up in the air tonight. That little play is all I can come up with. Guess its time to just go to an alignment shop and see if thats the culprit. Its got 165k on it so was thinking just maybe the bushings were finally done.
 
TRLJNKY said:
Ok thanks for the feedback. Ill keep plugging away. Shook the whole thing down while up in the air tonight. That little play is all I can come up with. Guess its time to just go to an alignment shop and see if thats the culprit. Its got 165k on it so was thinking just maybe the bushings were finally done.
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when was the last time you changed out ball joints?

if you take to an alignment shops they should be able to tell you if you have worn ball joints, hubs or bad tierod ends
 
Ball joints just done and tierod/draglink were done about a year or two ago. Checked those and didnt see any indicators. I bent the hell out of the tie rod but got it back straight. I was thinking maybe bad bushings but i just need to go get it professionally aligned and see what it says. Thanks for the input though 👍

aka cavfighter
 
TRLJNKY said:
Ball joints just done and tierod/draglink were done about a year or two ago. Checked those and didnt see any indicators. I bent the hell out of the tie rod but got it back straight. I was thinking maybe bad bushings but i just need to go get it professionally aligned and see what it says. Thanks for the input though 👍

aka cavfighter
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Did you move the tie rod ends while you had it off? They should buy able to move but should have some resistance. When I replaced mine, the old ends were so loose that they'd wiggle around when I tipped the bar back and forth in the open air by themselves.

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
After my ball joint install my Jeep was flighty as well. Took it to OffRoad Evolution and they adjusted my CAs to correct the caster. It felt pretty sketch on the highway before I took it in.


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Finally got my alignment done. Surprisingly I was pretty close with toe but I did notice my caster is on the low end. Ddays (da man) hooked me up with a set of adj Curries he had laying around and I set them to specs Currie had listed on their website. Believe it was 22 5/8's and they were almost spot on with the factory lower CA's

Now, Tires Plus here in town would not touch the lower CA's. With all the wisdom and experience anyone got a ball park on turns to lengthen the CA's to be a bit closer? I though I read I should be closer to 4° and it currently shows 2.2°-2.7° which btw TP said was fine.20180212_094842.jpg

aka cavfighter
 
TRLJNKY said:
Finally got my alignment done. Surprisingly I was pretty close with toe but I did notice my caster is on the low end. Ddays (da man) hooked me up with a set of adj Curries he had laying around and I set them to specs Currie had listed on their website. Believe it was 22 5/8's and they were almost spot on with the factory lower CA's

Now, Tires Plus here in town would not touch the lower CA's. With all the wisdom and experience anyone got a ball park on turns to lengthen the CA's to be a bit closer? I though I read I should be closer to 4° and it currently shows 2.2°-2.7° which btw TP said was fine.

aka cavfighter
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Most alignment shops don't work on modified Jeeps which is why they probably told you it was fine. Most shops that adjust caster on other vehicles do so to correct a pulling symptom so they probably didn't even know how to help you.

As far as the # of turns, hard to say for sure, but I'm guessing you'll have to make them about 1/4" longer. Just do a little at a time and recheck. Also, make sure the arms stay the same length as each other each time you re-measure your caster angle.
 
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