I have a 17 JKU with a 2.5 AEV dual susp.with the Geo brackets. The steering wheel has some play in it. & wanders on hwy. Also when I get my tires rotated & balance the steering wheel feels great, there’s no play & I don’t feel like I have to keep both hands on 10 & 2. But after a couple weeks it goes back to having the loose feeling. Has newer ball joints, Steer Smart sway links & Track bar) could it be the drag link or tie rod or control arms? Also has the Falkin Wildpeak A/T3 tires. I’ll upload some pictures but these ones are old before all the newer stuff was put on.

I hope this makes since

Thanks!

 

What wheels,, offset - backspace? How much wear on the tires= tread depth? Alignment Specs? Control arms hold the axle in place and with the GBs should be parallel to the ground. You might watch several youtube videos on diagnosing death wobble for testing the steering components before spending more bucks.

 

Thank you I will watch some!

I have the original wheels on it 18. I’m taking it in next week for an alignment even though I had it align a yr ago. Just to make sure it’s all accurate. Then go from there.

 

Usually, if you have a bad joint in TR or DL, you will get a little bumpsteer when hitting a big bump or pothole. Not to say that you can't have a bad joint there, but they tend to display themself in a different manner IMO. With the bushings in the factory control arms, they'd have to be really old and shot to produce some veering like that. There just is no movement in that joint like a lot of aftermarket control arms. You'd have to have severely cracked and disintegrating joint in that factory component, which seems unlikely on a '17.

This is certainly not your issue, but every time i see it a little piece of me dies. AEV uses these dumb brackets to extend those tiny little sway bar links rather than just including some new sway bar links that are appropriately sized. It's not like sway bar links are a pricey item. Got bit of a bend going on there.

 

Agree with Resharp - at the very least put longer SB links on the front as any serious flex will reverse the sway bar with those existing short links and a lift. I screwed mine up last outing and they were 9.5" now going to 11.5" ones.

 

Thanks for your help! These are old pictures but I do have the steer smart sway bar links on there. I’ll try & get updated pictures here soon. It’s a 17 freedom edition with 47,000 miles. I hope stuff aren’t going bad on it already 😅. But again it’s a Jeep always putting money into it.

 

Obviously rotating and balancing tires can't change free play in the steering, so I'm going to suggest that there might actually be excess play and a balance + rotate just makes it track better and the play isn't as noticeable for a while.

One way to check the play is to have someone slowly rotate the steering wheel back and forth (about 10 degrees) with the engine running while another person safely checks all the relevant steering and suspension components for excess play, or flexing.

Another thought that came to mind is tire pressure, too much might cause a wander + uneven wear accross the tread. What size tires, and what pressure are you using?