I'll start off by saying I have the flu and working outside hasn't helped. Did a bunch of stupid things on this swap that really could of been caught if I wasn't in lala land.

Background story of how I came to this problem.

I have a few inches of slop in the steering wheel and with my DW starting to come back I decided it was finally time to replace it. Plan is to go with hydro assist as I'm sure I'll wear out another box if I don't. I picked up a PSC steering box off of a club member and went to work.

Since I want to solve my DW first before going hydro, I capped off the 3 hydro lines on the PSC box and just reconnected the 2 hard lines from the Jeep.

This is where the funky parts started and in hind sight I should of just moved the input shaft on the PSC box a couple turns over.

I had the steering wheel ratchet strapped to the brake pedal but the index mark on the psc box wasn't at the same spot as my OEM box i removed. I recruited the help of a buddy to jiggle the steering wheel back and forth as I put the pitman arm back on the sector shaft. I loosened the rachet strap a little so there was some wiggle room. Told him to turn the wheel a bit to the driver side so I could line it up but make sure he says something once he can't turn it anymore due to the strap so we don't bust the clock spring. I kept saying little bit driver and mean while he turned it 1.25 turns before saying he couldn't. Well no shit because at this point the strap was wound aroung the steering column

I had him turn it back to exactly what he started off to so that should be good I think. Steering wheel controls still work. Back to the index mark on the box. To move ptiman arm over enough I decided to shorten the drag link by at least 3/4". I got the pitman arm on the shaft but then realized what I did was probably goofy... (remember, flu) So took the pitman arm off and took the intermediate shaft off going to the PSC box, turned the input side of the PSC box a couple times until it lined up and put the intermediate shaft back on. Tires were up in the air so I was able to get the pitman arm (connected to a now shortened drag link) to the sector shaft.

Filled it up with fluid and started cycling it left to right to work out the bubbles.

Now my issue. When I turn the steering wheel all the way to the passenger side, the steering wheel stops right when the wheels stop and I can't turn the steering wheel anymore. When I turn the steering wheel to the driver side, the wheels stop and then I can still turn the steering wheel at least another 3/4 of a turn which seems excessive and pretty sure it'll break something.

The front is still up on jack stands so haven't checked how straight it is but does it sound like the over rotation to the driver side could be caused by the shortening of the drag link and subsequently can be fixed by lengthening the drag link?

My mind is all over the place and my nose is leaking all sorts of fluids so hopefully this made some logical sense!

 

Hey there I'm dealing with the exact same thing only I broke my clockspring. The first thing I can say is depending on the year of your Jeep there are different internal gearing ratios on the box. Since you said you shortened the drag link a little I would adjust it back and try again.

Back to the different gearing on the steering boxes, PSC does seem to list different gear boxes for the different years also 2 door and 4 door Jeeps make a difference.

I attempted to use a rebuilt Delphi steering box from an (07-09) but its different then the boxes in the later 09-13 boxes.

I guess you should try to figure out which PSC box you have to know if its an older year ratio or newer.

 

I didn't realize they had a different box for the various years. I thought the kit was just different due to the engine layout from the 3.8 to 3.6 but kept the same ps box. hm...

 

Checked out their site and looks like they have a 2 door and 4 door option but the years covered are 07-14. So I'm good. Had me worried

 

I haven't had this issue, Vlad, so I'm just brainstorming here. The steering wheel movement while disconnected seems like a potential concern. I have a gauge that can access steering wheel angle from the computer and I have read that another device does it as well. Thinking Procal but not sure. If you have one you can set the steering angle to zero with the steering wheel, then set the wheels straight, then adjust to drag link to match.

Just a thought. No real science here. Good luck.

 

The 4-door box has a quicker turn ratio vs. the 2-door, but that shouldn't matter.

Are you certain the steering box is internally centered with the wheels pointing straight forward? I just relocated my box forward and moved everything around. So, with the intermediate shaft disconnected, I turned the box all the way to each side, counting the rotations of the output shaft that connects to the intermediate shaft. Once I did that a few times I was able to determine where the center was in the box. Maybe you are not centered?

 

Yeah the procal tells you when you are at 0. I sold my when I got rid of the '08 and have a flashpaq now ... which has been great since it has everything the procal does except that one steering wheel feature lol. Which at the time I thought was useless and what could someone possibly have a use for it.

I think the clockspring can do 2.5ish rotations? maybe 3 in each direction. He only did it 1.25 so bringing it back means we should be okay on that side at least.

That is a good point. I haven't counted if it is internally centered. I went off of the indexing mark on the sector shaft. On the OEM one the index mark was basically perpendicular to the frame. I moved the input shaft on the psc one until it matched. Really should of just done this when I wasn't sick

I'll count out the number of rotations on the box to find the center. That seems to be the most accurate way to find center.

 

I used it to re-center my steering wheel with the drag link after I installed my lift. Only time I ever used it but worked like a charm.