osheepup11

I have a 3'' suspension lift on my XJ, and i just put an adjustable track bar on, but my steering seems like it got very tight, Is this normal.....? Also my steering wheel is about an 1/8th of a turn to the right but my axle looks centered under the truck ...? Is this just a case of an alignment or what ....? P.S. Its a Rough Country adjustable track bar, and the ball joint arm is adjusted all into the track bar. Im running out of ideas here any advice would be greatly appreciated.

a1racer

get it aligned

osheepup11

is it normal for my front end / steering to tighten up ?

a1racer

get it aligned if your caster is off then yes it can be tight. when ever you lift or lower a car or truck it need to be aligned to ride correct

muddeprived

He's right. When you align your axle, the drag link is being pulled and this is connected to your steering box, which your steering wheel controls so when you pull on it, your wheel turns a little. That's why your steering wheel is off center. To fix it you need to adjust the draglink:



There's a adjuster sleeve in the middle with two bolts. Loosen em and twist. I can't remember which direction turns it which way but it's easily figured out. Get it aligned if you are not able to do this yourself.

osheepup11

Thanks guys ... One more quick question, is it recomemded to change to a drop pitman arm with a 3'' suspension lift? And what do u suggest to get my truck back to feeling like a stock ride.... So far i have only changed out the stock track bar to an adjustable.

muddeprived

No. Leave your steering stock, it'll be fine at that height. You don't want to install a drop pitman arm alone. You would have to drop the trackbar frame mount with it in order to maintain proper steering angles. look at both your trackbar and draglink. They follow the same line and that's proper steering. Dropping the pitman arm will throw that off.

I'm not sure what type of lift kit you have on but i'm guessing rough country? Once you lift it, you sacrifice ride quality cuz your control arms are working at an angle and all the road noise gets transfered up the arms into the body. Not much you can do about that at 3" but if your jeep is set up properly it should be riding pretty good, just a little on the stiff side. Get your alignment done and see how it rides after.

What is your jeep doing that is making it feel un-stockish?

osheepup11

I was just worried cause the steering tightened up so much after I put the track bar in, i guess i'm just going to have the alignment done and take it from there, hopefully that puts my mind at ease... Im a little **** about mechanical things lol... But i forgot to mention that i did a brake line extension as well as a transfer case drop... Other than that everything is stock until i change out the front end with some heavy duty ball joints and tie rods.... Im also looking into getting quick disconnect sway bar links, have any suggestions ??

osheepup11

p.s. I drive my truck to michigan every weekend ( about 250 mile round trip at 75 mph the whole time) so i dont want something going wrong, cause i dont see it being to good when im at those kinds of speed .

muddeprived

http://zoneoffroad.com/product-acc2?ki=67

freakaccident

The steering is tight because the tires are more toe'd in now. Get the alignment and it should be better. Will fix the steering wheel too.

a1racer

does the lift have adjustable control arms or no.