CJ7 understeer/oversteer

[falcon556]

A little bit late to worry about it, I no longer have this Jeep, but I need to know.
I used to own a 1980 CJ7 standard shift, 100% stock.
In snow or other slippery conditions in 4WD, under power it would understeer to the point that I had to drive back and forth just to make a turn and without power it would oversteer in a turn. Even going straight in snow, it
was hard to stay in one place unless I drove slowly. Many times I had to get off 4WD so that I can control it.
Was that something all CJ7s did or did I get stuck with something weird?
I bought it brand new, no modifications. It took me a while before I tried another Jeep again after this dissappointment. Since then and a few XJs later, I never had this problem again.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

 

[Matthew Currie]

The old Saab 96's used to do this if you got going too fast - they'd plow straight ahead under power and tuck into the curve as soon as you let off the gas. But I wouldn't have expected this of a CJ, and especially not at normal speeds, unless there was something odd. I wonder if the alignment was funny or the axle off - maybe bent in some inconspicuous way. My old Scout used to have a hard time going straight, and I was told that it was due to too much camber built into the axle, fighting road camber. But I don't recall that it had any trouble getting around corners, and owing to the limited slip rear end it was much more likely to oversteer under power.

 

[falcon556]

The old Saab 96's used to do this if you got going too fast - they'd plow straight ahead under power and tuck into the curve as soon as you let off the gas. But I wouldn't have expected this of a CJ, and especially not at normal speeds, unless there was something odd. I wonder if the alignment was funny or the axle off - maybe bent in some inconspicuous way. My old Scout used to have a hard time going straight, and I was told that it was due to too much camber built into the axle, fighting road camber. But I don't recall that it had any trouble getting around corners, and owing to the limited slip rear end it was much more likely to oversteer under power.

I took it to the dealer, he was unable to duplicate (no snow anywhere), told me
everything was OK. Since then I've had three XJs, none of them had a problem.

 

[Matthew Currie]

I took it to the dealer, he was unable to duplicate (no snow anywhere), told me
everything was OK. Since then I've had three XJs, none of them had a problem.

"Unable to duplicate." Yeah, right. In other words, unable to figure out. I've never driven a CJ7, but I grew up with a CJ5, and that one was "point and shoot" on snow, one of those vehicles that makes you respect Jeeps forever. Oh well, now you have an XJ, and we KNOW they work in snow.