Flash1993

Hello ladies and gentlemen,
I recently switch to 33" tires and noticed when on the road my steering is "loose" I guess you would say. I thought maybe I need to upgrade my steering stabilizer but I wanted to hear what you guru's thought about it. I know sometime soon I need to replace my gears with 4:56 gears. But I just don't know alot about what other stuff I should probably upgrade to further protect myself from a major issue.

resharp001

It looks like you might have a fairly stock set up (looking at your profile). Have any of the steering components been upgraded over the years are are you working with 10-year-old parts and joints? If that is the case, maybe you're just due to address some of these things......they are normal wear components. TR ends, DL and ball joints. A new SS would probably give the impression of "helping", but it's really just masking issues. That jeep should drive perfectly fine without a SS at all, at which point if you run with a SS it's just icing on the cake and the final piece of the puzzle that helps keep everything in harmony.

If what you consider "loose" is more of a dead zone in the steering wheel, that might point a bit more to the steering box itself.

Flash1993

All Steering Components are stock. Is this the only things that should be replaced? I would really like to understand more of this stuff. Do you know any resources that could help make me better understand this?

XJRefugee

going up on 33" tires (if you are not used to the feel of them) running on rutted roads, sometimes these tires will track into the ruts are feel like the steering is loose. It does not take much of a rut to cause this to happen.

Flash1993

Is the stock Tie Rod and Drag Link fine with new ball joints or is a whole new HD Tie Rod and Drag Link in order?

Flash1993

I see I made a mistake while I did some researching and now know you didn't mean ball joints on the Tie Rod and Drag Link.....

resharp001

Correct, I mean the ball joints that hold the knuckles to the Cs. To be clear, I am not saying replacing that stuff is 100% your issue, but on a decade-old jeep these things will need to be freshened up at some point. Some of this could just be what XRefugee pointed out above with a larger/wider tire and it's just a different feeling than you were used to.....though larger tires also add more stress to the steering components.

Niteshooter

Couple of things, what tires have you upgraded to? Is the tread more aggressive such as a Mud Terrain or perhaps a BFG KO2? Also when you say 'loose' does the steering wheel rock back and forth?

Could be worn steering components, but it might also be a worn steering stabilizer. On my JK when I upgraded to BFG KO2's I suddenly had a shimmy in my steering wheel. Replaced/upgraded my stock steering stabilizer and solved the problem. But yours might be a completely different issue depending on other factors.