I have an 84 CJ7. It drives well, for the most part, but I've noticed that I am "wandering" a lot more these days. Any suggestions on what to look at first or potential areas of concern? I tinker here and there, but am not really an at-home mechanic.

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!

Check the steering linkage. Any mods to the CJ?

Like JeepinIan asked. Any mods??????????????

No mods. I'm running 31's, recent repack of bearings and alignment. Pretty much original, just new exhaust and rebuilt T5.

When I brought it to the shop recently for the re-packing and alignment I told them I noticed a slight pull to the left when I hit the brakes, they recommended checking my brake hoses (original), etc. for possible causes. After the work was done, the jeep drove better, but the steering is not as tight as I would like. I thought maybe my steering box could be adjusted or needed to be replaced??

Anyone have a recommendation of a good shops in San Diego to do work on my jeep?

Thanks again.

Probably worn tie rod/draglink ends...

Is this something I can change? What part(s)? Sorry, I need a little help with this and I am not familiar with this area at all.

Thanks!

Sure. A monkey could do it. Just remove the pins and castle nuts at the ends of your tie rod and draglink, separate them with a tie-rod separator or 3-jaw puller, and then loosen up the adjuster nuts and remove the ends with a pipe wrench.

*edit* You can get new ends at any parts store. they should come in at around 20 to 30 bucks each. */edit*

Good luck,

Jake

It could also be your steering shaft rag joint between the firewall and the steering box. My uncle had this problem with his and he reaplaced the whole shaft with a borgeson shaft... its really nice but extremely spendy. Good luck.


-j-rOd:usa:

Here is what I would do to find out what the problem/s is/are: First get someone to help you. With the motor off have your helper turn the wheel back and forth and look for where the slop is. It could be the shaft from the colum to the rag-joint, the rag-joint, the steering box, the tyrods, or all the above. Replacing the steering shaft on that year Jeep is very common. I doubt it is the rag-joint but if you replace the steering shaft it will come with a new u-oint to replace the rag-joint. If the slop is from the box there is a set screw with a 9/16 jam nut on the top of the box on the aluminum top piece. To adjust this loosen the jam nut and using a 5/32 allen wrench turn it in untill the steering feels better to you. Don't get carried away with this adjustment because if turned in to much it will make the steering very twitchy so you need to have some slop. I doubt that it is the tyrod ends because the place that did the alignment would have been happy to sell you new ones so I would think they would have told you if they were bad.

I've also removed the taper bolts in tie rod ends from knuckles, with, would you believe it, a hammer. All them fancy highfalutin 3 jaw pullers really aren't needed here. If you are going to reuse the end, just back off the castle nut so you won't screw the threads on the bolt.

Bob

My vote is for the steering box. It either needs tightening or is loose on the frame.

Boots

CJ steering boxes are notorious for coming loose, that's my vote.

Got Caster?.......

If you don't know. $30 at an alignment shop(unless you have a coupon ) and they will give you the (out of wack) value...>>>let them fix it or just do it your self....but for $30 they will tell you whats wrong even if it's not caster.

An easy way to check caster is to turn the steering all the way to one side (while in park)....then put it in gear and drive forward.....if the steering straightens out quickley ,you have good caster...if it straightens out slowly you have too little caster...if it whips violently you have too much caster.....too much or too little will make your rig wander.....

Caster can be affected by mods to the suspension FYI. but they make tappered shims to correct this problem.(use steel not aluminum) trust me:)

Gotta go with Boss Grip on this one, I bet it's an alignment issue... or at least get the alignment checked carefully before swapping any parts out. Suggesting all those parts get replaced is really jumping the gun on this problem.

Insufficient Caster angle will cause it to wander like a horny dog. Also check the toe-in but Caster is critical. If it's down to 3-4 degrees, you need to add a shim in the front axle to get that axle rotated back a tad to get the Caster angle back up over 5 degree... 5.5 to 6 is good.

Think of a shopping cart wheel and how it wanders... the axis it turns left and right around has 0 degrees Caster angle. Then think of a Harley Davidson motorcycle with extended forks... LOTS of Caster angle which makes the bike very stable for cruising... no wander at all on the front wheel. Make sure too that the Caster angles between the left and right sides aren't too far off from each other which can cause pulling to the side.