Hey y’all back with some new problems. I put on a 3 inch lift and 35s and noticed my steering wheel was all over the place. Looked over my suspension and saw no bad joints. Figured I’d tighten down my gear box adjustment screw a couple clicks. Drove it yesterday and the steering wheel starting making this noise when spinning the wheel. Almost like it’s catching and sliding on something? Any ideas?

 

What lift did you install? Was there some form of caster correction? It is rare if ever that someone needs to mess with tightening steering box. I've never heard that sound myself.

On a side note, it's a tall order to ask people to download a file to their computer from a stranger. I'm on a Chromebook I don't care about so did it. It's easier, and safer for everyone, to simply upload a video to YouTube and then simply paste a link here which will embed the video in the post.

 

What does all over the place mean, exactly? Is the wheel "loose" and has play in it or is the vehicle (suspension/tires) moving it for you when you drive?

 

That is an excellent idea I didn’t even think to upload to YouTube. It kept telling me the file was too big I went thru the ringer to get it to upload 😂

I have no actual idea what is wrong at this point. I’m just pretty frustrated with everything. I had a 3 inch Teraflex lift installed with the 8 sport control arms, front and rear adjustable track bars, and falcon 3.1 shocks. I figured I’d try the steering screw since everything else looks tight and a shop has brushed me off already saying everything’s fine.

 

Let me explain better for everybody. Around 12 months ago I was completely stock. I had around 80,000 miles at the time and my steering wasn’t bad but obviously wasn’t as good as when I bought it at 40,000. 6 or so months ago during the winter (New England) I put 315/70/17’s on my stock wheels with no lift. The slightly looser steering now felt like a death mission driving down the road. It wandered from left to right and I was just steering the entire time to keep it in lane. I brought it back to my local shop and they told me they checked all my suspension joints and everything looked fine. They recommended that I get a HD steering stabilizer. I then bought the falcon 2.1 stabilizer and a synergy HD drag link and installed both myself. The steering got about 75% better so I called it good. Drove it for the next few months no problems. 2 weeks ago I got a Teraflex 3 inch lift with 8 sport arms, falcon 3.1 shocks, and front and rear adjustable track bars installed. It was immediately back to wobbly feeling driving down the road. Just non stop steering to keep it straight. It wanders all over the lane and it’s a forearm workout to keep it straight. When you turn the wheel very slightly to the left or right it grabs and pulls hard that direction needing large correction. When you hit pot holes the entire steering wheel just kinda does whatever it wants. Again needing correction severely to keep it straight after each pothole. I called the shop that installed it as it’s supposed to go in for the nut and bolt check this weekend. I told them it’s steering very wildly and all over the road hoping the could check things out for me. The guy on the phone said it’s just because the bigger tires and they are pulling when they grab small cracks in the road. He said anything on big tires does that and that’s just what happens. At this point I know something is wrong in the steering and this shop has now also shrugged me off. Tightened the adjustment screw on the box as I’m not sure what to do if everything else is tight and no shop will even diagnose what it is. Tightened the box 3 days ago and the noise in the wheel started 2 days ago. Kinda worn out on this entire mess.

 

Your Jeep should not handle that way as that is what your installer said is normal. I don’t want to tell you to start adding parts but considering you just had lift installed you may have contributed to the more flighty feeling. If it were my Jeep I would first replace those stock ball joints, mine were shot at 50K, don’t go cheap here. The Teraflex lift IMO is good, however maybe it needs to be dialed in a bit. Possibly pinion angle is off. I would find someone to take a look at that and then possibly have a friend move the steering while jacked up to see any obvious unusual movement.

 

Kinda have 2 issues going on here.....the original issue, which I think most of us can agree is not normal, and the sound issue, which I tend to think is related to you cranking down that steering box adjustment screw. I think as troubleshooting step 1 I would reverse the adjustment screw back to where it was and see how the noise changes.

What many people don't realize is these installers, much like dealers, don't know as much about this stuff as they'd like to think. They slap parts on and call it a day. They are not good at diagnosing, nor typically want to spend precious, uncompensated time doing so.

If you can link to what kit you installed and take some pictures of the front suspension and steering from a few angles in addition to the rear we might be able to help spot something. I asked earlier about caster correction but did not get a response. I suspect caster is low. If any frame-side mounts were lowered that could come into play as well.

 

Have you had an alignment done since having the lift installed? If not, do so and post a pic of the alignment sheet so we can see what is going on. Flighty steering after installing a lift sounds like low caster.

I think I remember reading somewhere that the screw adjustment on your steering box can only be adjusted very slightly without risk of completely destroying the steering box. If that is true, and I don't honestly know if it is or not (hopefully someone here can confirm it), be very careful with any adjustments on it.

 

yes they did a 4 wheel alignment on it after the lift. I measured from front coil bucket to tire lug on each side and they are the same. The back also measures out the same.

as far as the steering box. I’m a dumb kid lol and didn’t realize the screw spun with the nut usually. Loosened the nut with a ratchet, tightened the screw down 1/8 of a click and then used the ratchet to spin it back on. Not realizing it was spinning the screw tight with the nut. Went back out the next night and backed it off till it got real loose and then tightened it back up a bit. That’s where she sits now.

 

Steering stabilizer couldn't hurt, didn't see if you installed one or 2 or not, It made an improvement on my teraflex 2.5 inch, which personally..... I found the springs very mushy, but I used stock shocks w extenders for 3 years or so (only 25k kilometers) on 35s