Hey guys, got a 93 cherokee, 2wd 4.0l here and having a bit of a problem. My key was stuck in the ignition so my dad and I took the whole thing apart and fixed THAT. Alright, after putting it all back together everything is working great. Then we put the wheel back on and much to my dismay there is a snap/clicking when I turn it coming from the engine compartment. When you turn it one way it does for a second and then it does it again when you turn it the other way. We looked in the engine compartment and can see that it is coming from a coupling on the steering shaft. I have looked all over alldata and autozone and can't find anything about this... any ideas?

Here is the part circled in red. When you turn the wheel either way it'll shift over that way and make a clicking sound like a zip tie zipping.


For reference, just to the right is where this connects to the cab.

 

Here are some more pics, you can click all of these and get a much larger image including the one in my first post.

 

That is the steering shaft assembly. The joint that you are referring to can and does go bad. If it fails, you can lose all steering control. I'm not sure if you can get a rebuilt one or not, but Quadratec does sell them new.

http://www.quadratec.com/advisor/jee...steering.php#1

#1 in the above diagram.

 

are you sure the steering column is back in its original position

 

As far as I know, know any tell tale signs that it wouldn't be?

 

They do wear and are not rebuildable to the best of my knowledge. Replacement is pretty straight forward. It may click for years before it gets seriously dangerous. But it is better safe than sorry. Replace the worn parts.

 

Alright, looks like replacing it is the way to go. Only thing is, it DIDN'T click before we took it apart so could it be a case of somethings not together right or is it more likely that we managed to mess it up while working on the steering column in the car?

 

Double check to be sure everything is back where it belongs. Tip--- If it still acts funny remove the entire shaft, get the joint warm (not red hot) with your red wrench and then quench it in some old motor oil! Solved a problem with my old jeep. I have a spare now for "just such an emergency".