I did some trail/mud riding this past weekend and once I got home noticed my steering wheel is no longer centered. You know the "Jeep" wording is not horizontal any more. I drove it to see if it was pulling to one side or the other and its not. So my question is, is this common when trail riding and can I just recenter the steering wheel or do I need to get an alignment?

 

Q: How do I recenter my steering wheel?
A: To re-center your steering wheel, use a 15mm wrench to loosen the 2 nuts on the turnbuckle on your drag link as shown in the pic below. Then, rotate the turnbuckle clockwise or counter clockwise as needed while a friend watches the steering wheel (or you periodically check on it yourself) go back to center. Once re-centered, secure the nuts and take it for a drive to check your steering wheel. This may take a few tries to get it on 100% but that’s all there is to it.

 

God I hope I didn't bend anything. I did go through some deep ruts at some point so thats possiable.

 

You weren't on the backside of the levee again, were you??

 

uuhh no

 

Sounds like what Robar posted. My drag link is doing the same thing but it's off by maybe 1/8 cm so I'm not going to bother with it right now. Check your drag link before doing anything else. The Jeep is pretty robust.

 

I re-centered the steering wheel a little while ago and it seems to pull slightly to the right. I didnt notice the pull till just now. So Im guessing that I bent something or just need an alignment. How do I know if I bent something?

 

I just had to do this myself. Drag link was bowed slightly after some hard wheelin causing excessive toe-in. Had to replace it. The bowing was only barely perceptible, but it doesn't take much to throw your alignment and wheel centering off. I did a quick re-center on the trail as shown and then had the drag link replaced when I got back. Of course, that necessitated another wheel re-centering.

 

Mine was off center the day i bought it did was going to use the straightening procedure here but the lift cured that problem.