I’m kind of scratching my head at this. I just put on some roller rockers on my 2.5, and I decided to see what it had on this one straight away. I finished turning, and let it rip all the way up to 60. After I started to slow down, my XJ didn’t feel right. I also noticed that my steering wheel wasn’t off to the right anymore, but off by a lot to the left.

My XJ also felt a lot more unstable and it feels like I can’t keep it in a straight line without constantly changing the way I’m steering.

My steering wheel was off to the right because I did an alignment on it, and there’s so much play in my steering box that I couldn’t get the steering wheel 100% centered.

Anyway, is there any way I could’ve “ripped” something when flooring it down a straight away? I took a look underneath and nothing seemed loose or ripped, but my leaf springs are already in pretty bad shape.

What should I start looking at?

 

Badly worn leaves will cause the vehicle to wander a bit and may take some steering correction with uneven pavement. Leaves get soft over time and the rear end doesnt stay planted as it once did. Too much sag and the shocks can bottom out, and fail. Leaves (and coils) by themselves are quite bouncy with nothing to dampen the ride.

But that wouldnt throw the steering wheel off center with the front tires. My guess is a sloppy box. Check the frame around the steering box brace for cracks, the brace itself for cracks as best you can, and the steering shaft joint for play. Thats what i would start with.

 

Based on your post these changes (steering wheel position changed and wandering /unstable tracking) happened on one trip. This isn't gradual wear, something is loose or broken. It's time to stop messing around before you kill someone.

Don't blame this on the 6 hp your rockers may have added, no matter what mods you made it will never be as much hp or torque as a worn out 4.0

 

Your steering is failing, STOP driving it now.

for starts, check the steering fluid level, and wipe some on a clean white towel to check color, and importantly for contamination, and a smell, burnt smell is that, burnt fluid, no good any more.
Get a helper to turn the steering while you watch what is happening from under and around the front, do this with engine on for power steering. Make sure in Park, parking brake on, and foot brake on the entire time you are under or infront of jeep. Dont get killed.

check all moving parts, use a bright flash light, check not only every moving linkage, but also see if gear box is flexing on the frame or not, if the conttol arms rubber ends are sloppy and worn, examine each ball joint in motion, assure no torn boots. examine each steering point where she mounts to frame, make sure there is no excess motion, ie no motion on frame.
check in engine bay, observe steering linkage between firewall and gear box as it is turned look for slop.

rock jeep up and down each corner, get two of you on it, as the jeep is heavy, after you stop pushing up and down, the bounce should stop very fast if shock on that corner is good, if not, you made a shocking discovery, bad shock!

 

Well, I found the parts that are responsible.

Obviously, my leaf springs are flat and the bushings are shot. That would account for most of the instability.

The second culprit was a tie rod at the pitman arm, again. I guess the one I put on originally wasn’t that good, and it failed. And yes I did grease it too.

Anyway, I replaced that tie rod, got my alignment back straight-ish, and this weekend i’m gonna hopefully replace both of my leaf springs and put the OEM shackles back on. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll ride better

 

Whatever you do, don't change any fluids, otherwise your brakes might fail

 

When buying replacement parts, country of origin is important.

 

When buying replacement parts, country of origin is important.