sloppy steering, need advice

[hoobness]

Since elsguapo (my YJ) has been up and running since the rebuild, there have been a few kinks I still have not been able to work out.

In particular is my steering. Its pretty sloppy. I dont dare go on the highway or travel over 50 for that matter. It becomes very unstable, the steering is unresponsive for like 10 degrees of steering wheel travel, and then responds, the faster Im going the worse it is.

before I knew the limits of the handling, I was zooming up a road I have been going on for years in the jeep(before the rebuild) and some bump steer jerked it over a lilttle bit. I went to correct it only to toss myself into a back and forth fight to keep the jeep in the lane. I just slowed down and it disapeared.

It was never like that. It goes great -straight.

Here is whats going on in the front end: I swapped in Dana44s, so I have FSJ steering linkage - all the way up to the FSJ draglink. I have a YJ drop pitman attached to the YJ steering box. I have NOT had a true alignment, Ive only eyed it. I do not have a trac bar, I need to modify either the FSJ trac bar to fit to the frame, or the YJ to fit to the FSJ Dana44. I do NOT have a steering dampner, again I am trying to figure out a solution to that to.


Any ideas?

 

[GaryMB]

RE: Re: RE: crank position sensor

What about the condition of the steering box, steering shaft, length of shackles, condition of steering column, tire pressure, tire size, arch of leaf springs, and caster? An alignment would probably help, along with a trac bar. When you said that you were moving back and forth, was the Jeep just swerving in the lane as if from over-correcting, or did it feel like the axle was moving side to side more so than the Jeep? Any vibes? I would get the front end up in the air, check for play EVERYWHERE, and plan on installing a trac bar and having the alignment done asap. Chances are a steering damper will help as well. What are the axles out of, and have they been rotated at all in a way that would affect the caster? Poor caster would cause the Jeep to be squirly at higher speeds. Also it is just possible that you still need to adjust to the new handling characteristics of the Jeep (especially if it is lifted higher or has larger tires than before). On my CJ with 3.5" of lift and 32's, no trac bar and original steering damper, the steering wheel would be turning back and forth 90 degrees on the freeway at 70mph to correct for bumps. However, it was just slopy no matter how far I turned the wheel and would not suddenly be responsive. It was a compilation of several factors that affected this.

 

[hoobness]

the axle is from a Grand Waggy. I kept the caster the same., the shackles are 1" lifted from Rubicon Express. Yes the jeep feels like its swerving from over correction. No vibes. Not sure about the axle moving under the jeep, wouldnt know what that feels like.
The steering box and shaft were fine when they were attached to the stock Dana30 back in May. It had excellent handling for a jeep. It was tight and responsive, no slack in the wheel.
Now its like steering a boat.

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Do you run a locker in the rear axle? This will increase the side to side movement of the front axle forced by steering input, since you run no front trackbar.

Caster shouldn't be an issue since you left it the same as the SJ. I'd concentrate on the trackbar and steering stabilizer and go from there.