Rubber boots these days can be terrible quality. At my work we do a number of ball joint dust covers on VW T2's and now only buy Meyle branded ones for the job as the brand we use to get would fail the next years inspection having fallen off or split. I even have a set of First Line ball joints on my XJ and within a year the boots were completely dead, my fix for those was I 3D printed some They're still holding up

 

mine only has a mild 2.5" lift... nothing crazy... and it has the orig. drop pitman arm. But with that little amount of lift it doesnt visually look to be at an angle that would do this... but again... I'm wondering if there is something else that is causing this issue and seeing a torn boot on a fairly new tie-rod end is just the result. It's almost a 25 year old Jeep... I don't expect it to ride like it's on rails...but I can't imagine that even when it was new that this happened to it.
Like I mentioned, I've replaced the inner/outer tie-rod ends, trac bar, less than 10k ago. It only has a 2.5" ish lift. A rebuilt RedHead steering gearbox. No leaks from it at this time. Had a buddy help me check that there wasn't slop in the steering column.
I've had it aligned. I just put new tires on recently nothing huge...just another set of 235s.

 

Just wanted to add....If you have the Moog problem solvers ball joint good luck finding a boot to fit correctly and Moog don't sell them separate either. Make matters worse now they have came out with ones where the boot is want to say integrated into the ball joint. My other vehicle has less than 12k miles on them and upper ball joints boots gone again.

 

Well the main point I wanted to address in this thread is not really how to fix a torn boot on the pitman arm link.... but given the other info about my XJ.... trying to work towards the root cause of what is causing that to happen in the first place as this is the second boot that has torn on this link on my XJ.

 

Root cause is most likely poor quality boots on the parts you replaced.

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear.... I'm looking for the root cause as to what is causing them to tare in the first place.. is it something besides just the brand of the boot as I'm still having the constant issue of having to slightly correct the steering while driving down even a straight stretch of road. That's what I believe to be the actual root cause and I can't seem to pin it down. So was looking for thoughts and help here.

 

Likely just the boots. They're not gonna tear from steering the vehicle unless they're crappy boots.
If the boots are hitting something, you oughta be able to see that.
Face it. Auto parts are absolute **** for the most part these days. All started when a past President gave China "most favored nation" trading status.

 

So are you saying it's completely normal to have to hold the steering wheel an inch or two to one side just to go straight down the road? That tore up the last set of tires I had on it. and the torn rubber boot. Seemed to be manifestations of something else causing that to happen in the first place.

 

No. even though you never mentioned that until now.
I'm saying they're unrelated.

MY focus would be on the steering/suspension issue and not on the boots.
Others who have posted in this thread have had issues with the boots WITHOUT a front suspension/steering issue.

 

You could have 3 (or more) problems

* ****house boots

* improper suspension geometry due to wrong parts, causing excessive stretching of the boots

* so if you need to pull the wheel to steer straight, how does it point with your front wheels in a measured dead ahead position?

If its is not dead ahead, its pretty easy to adjust the tie-rod ends, and/or draglink tie-rod sleeve to get it all lined up

 

The Jeep needs to go to an alignment shop.

 

I second this

 

Agreed.... but I'm trying to find one that has experience with our old XJ's. I've had it aligned previously but after a couple of times messing with them... didn't seem like they knew what they were doing.
So I figured maybe a 4x4 shop that is used to working on these old solid axle jeeps would be a good idea.

 

i sure hope it's alignment that can be adjusted... I swore a couple years ago when I went through this whole steering gearbox issue of in, out, replace... that when I put the Redhead one in, that would be the last.
If it goes out prematurely... I'm going to kick it straight out the window. I love my old XJ...but that steering gearbox issue really pissed me off.

 

They don't come any simpler.
Only 2 things adjustable. Caster and toe-in.