Hi all. I tried to take out the play in my steering gear box and didn't have much luck. I could use some advice.

Here's the deal. My cherokee has about 120k miles on it and I'm running 32" tires. In the past few months the steering has developed some play, about 1-2" at the wheel. Not really bad, but annoying on long highway drives. I took a good look at it and found that the pitman arm does not turn when I turn the steering wheel in this dead spot. I checked the univeral joint input to the steering gear and found that that was turning. I'm not sure how to ensure that the acutal input shaft to the steering gear is turning, you can't see it very well, but it doesn't appear that there is anything loose there.

So, my diagnosis was a worn steering gear box, which appears to be a fairly common problem. I read on this forum that you can adjust that by loosening the nut on the top of the gear box and ajusting the set screw. I tried this but it didn't seem to make any difference. I loosened the nut and both tightened and loosened the set screw, as far as it would go. The steering might have been a very little bit worse with it fully loose, but didn't get any better with it fully tight. I read that if you overtighten that you will get interference in the gears and that it will be hard to turn. I tightened the thing as much as I could, but it didn't seem to take any of the play out, and didn't increase any of the steering effort. I was using a small allen wrench so I couldn't get a ton of torque on it, but there seemd to be definite limits to how much it would turn either looser or tighter, about 1 or 2 turns of total adjustment.

So, question is, did I do something wrong, or is this simply indicative of a worn out steering box? Thanks for your advice.

BTW - if this is a worn out box I was considering replacing it with a PSC xtreme duty gear (SG621M) and adding a C-rok inside frame plate. My Rock Hard front bumper would interfere with the outside frame plates so that is a no go. Does that sound like a good approach?

 

Bump - any help out there?

 

I'm having the same problem: 99xj classic, stock, 225,000

I adjusted the allen head but no luck. You might have tighened your allen head too much. I did 1/4 turn and was plenty tight most people say 1/8 to 1/4 turn, but as long as your steering wheel returns to center after a turn your fine.

Let me know any progress, I have a feeling it's the pitman arm.

-W

 

I have a different problem with my '99 XJ. I just bought it last week and don't know much about it's history.
The steering is tight with no play in the wheel. When turning, the steering wheel doesn't want to return to center by itself. I've greased the front end but it made no difference. I'm wondering if the previous owner might have overtightened the steering box adjustment. Would that cause the steering to feel "tight" and not self center?

 

Yes, sounds like it might be too tight. Try backing off a little.

 

It is possible to go too far with your adjustment and go past center. Start the engine and adjust it while someone is moving the steering wheel back and forth. Choose the spot where there is the least play and not binding. If it is still too loose, then you will need to replace the box.