Steering gurus needed

[XJJeepNewb]

Guys I need some help with steering.

My junk: 99, 4.5" RE superflex kit, adjustable track bar, rugged ridge tie rod and drag link setup, 4" drop pitman arm, JCR steering box reinforcement, wheel spacers on stock rims. Pretty basic.

I have no bump steer at all but there are a few things I really hate. They're not what I consider dangerous to drive but it makes me disatisfied with my rig particularly on the street.
Plus all these things get 10x worse when I disconnect the sway bar.

1- there is not much natural "centering" for the front wheels when going down the road. (I believe this is primarily due to the camber being at zero which I need to address)

2- the lack of centering is exacerbated by the steering having a huge deadband in the middle that is most noticeable after making a left/right transition.
Example: So if the jeep is drifting a little to the left, I gradually turn the wheel a little bit to the right to correct it. Now if I turn the wheel back to
the left, it doesn't have an immediate effect, it has to rotate much farther left to make the jeep go left again. Very annoying.

3- I can't keep working TRE boots on it, they keep getting popped and leaking the grease out. Annoying as hell and everyone I've talked to with the RR setup has said the same thing.

4- I know people hate the rugged ridge setup and that's probably fine but the JCR 1-ton steering geometry looks almost identical and it gets good reviews. Why is that? What am I missing?

I know the WJ steering gets a good rap on here but I don't have time to dig around the junkyard but more importantly because I don't understand exactly what the problem(s) is/are with the geometry or other aspects of my setup I'm not sure what's going to fix it. Would rather not throw parts at it without understanding the issues.

What are my options to correct these issues and why are they occurring?

I'm going to try and attach pictures of my steering .... click the thumb twice for full size.





Thanks for any advice.

 

[ocean_jet]

1- there is not much natural "centering" for the front wheels when going down the road. (I believe this is primarily due to the camber being at zero which I need to address)

Check your caster.

http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoAlignment.htm



It doesn't take much. Mine was wandering all over the road. I think I moved the LCAs out about 1/4"+ and it was fine.

 

[robsjeepxj]

Well I think you answered your own question here. If you know your alignment is off how is it you don't understand that that's more than likely real the problem? Set the toe to zero and the caster to 4.5* (1 degree/inch of lift) and see if that helps first.

As for the boots, if you force too much grease in the joint the bushing has no choice but to keep stretching until it eventually blows out.

I have the JCR OTK/OTA system and it works great but it won't if it's not setup properly and well maintained. I don't use boots or bushings on mine at all mostly because they didn't fit well and I grease the joints often enough that they always have fresh stuff in there to keep them clean and well lubed. Lastly I'll will say that I've heard more complaints than praise for the RR setup, yes it looks kind of like the JCR kit but.... it's just not. Cheaping out always winds up costing more in the end, believe me I've learned this lesson myself many times always the hard way.

Fix the alignment maybe try some poly boots instead and see how that works. Good luck with it.

 

[tonyxj2k]

As was said, toe and caster to fix the wandering and self centering issues. As for the deadband in the steering, given all your steering components are tight, check to see how much you can turn the steering shaft before the pitman arm moves. If it's a considerable amount, pull the aux fan to get to the steering box adjuster and try adjusting some slop out of the box. A little goes a long way, so be sure and don't overdo it or you can create enough drag inside the box to keep your steering from self centering even with the caster set right.

 

[guswheels]

I went from stock steering to the rugged ridge on my xj w 6.5" lift. night and day difference !! The r.r was horrible for tie rod roll. I have used that inverted style steering high steer on 44s and 60 and it worked great due to the near parrallel drag link angles. It sucks with a extreme drag link angle. I changed all over to wj after 2 weeks w the r.r and the wj steering is great. Well worth the money. I found knuckles on ebay for 20 ea from a junkyard on their. New calipers w brackets were 50 each (including core charge) from rock auto,sport trac rotors 20 each and 20 for a set of pads. make up or buy some links and your done. I needed brakes at the time anyway so I figured what the heck. They say the currie setup is very nice too. But for the price of currie I would just do the wj swap w bigger brakes too. your steering angles arnt too bad looking in the pics though. Make sure everything is tight and your alignment is right on like everyone else said.