Hi all,

I slid down the side of the road and was stuck in some pretty serious hard mud. It was very difficult to turn the wheel. After I got out, I noticed that the steering wheel was slightly out of alignment, but the Jeep tracks perfectly straight without any pulling.

Any ideas on why the steering wheel would go out of alignment? Did I bend something? If so, shouldn't the jeep pull?

Should I get a complete wheel alignment or just align the steering wheel myself?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Sounds like you bent your center link or Drag link. I bounced mine off a rock and did the same thing. Look closely and you should see one of them is bent. A wheel alignment wont do it you will need to loosen the nuts on the drag link and turn the bar until the steering wheel lines back up. easy fix but if you bent the bar it will bend more in the future thats why I went with RockKrawler bars instead.

 

FYI - My steering wheel alignment has been an issue for me... Just going up/off a sidewalk while parallel parking has affected the alignment. A few weeks ago I crashed into a tree, and the only effect was my steering wheel. I took the tie-rod, drag-link, etc. apart and couldn't find any problem. I still haven't found *where* the steering is getting mis-aligned, but I suspect the "Gear assembly" -- #1 in this picture:



js.

 

GREAT pic....I will have to steal a copy. Basically #6 is what you need to loosen to adjust your steering wheel back to Top Dead Center. Loosen those bolts and spin it while a buddy sits in the jeep and tells you when the wheel is centered. If yours keep misaligning itself with minor bumps you ahve damaged one of the bars and now it bends really easily. Buy a beefy center and drag link and you wont have this problem. I seriously doubt that the problem is in your steering gear box.

 

Here's a pic of my new bars. They are 1.5 inches thick and weigh 35lbs each!! No way I will ever bend them again. Now I have to relocate the drag link to the top of the knuckle and raise that steering stabilizer up so that I quit hitting it on rocks!!

 

I wasn't saying the "Mike JK" had this problem, only myself. I already have a chromoly tie-rod and very beefy 3rd party drag-link. Everything up to the pitman arm is in perfect condition. So *my* problem seems to be at the gear box or higher - I'm still investigating.

My point was that a mis-aligned steering is not necessary caused by a bent drag-link.

js.

 

Well they wouldnt have bent again until you said that

 

i agree with the steering gear theory. i have already blown one out when i was wheeling and trying to turn the wheel when it was real hard.

 

Was it the sector shaft, or some other part? I haven't taken mine apart yet, but the pitman arm & sector shaft looked good visually...

js.

 

Correct me if I am worng ...but when it "blew" it blew, it didn't just misalign itself by a small amount and keep working? Right??