Greetings all.
The patient is a 2001 XJ. 4.0 ltr, 4 door, auto trans. blah blah blah. standard 4.0 sport
Saturday my wife and I were running the trails at Rouch off road park in Sturgis Michigan. Went down a steep hill that was loose sand. The jeep slid on the sand and picked up uncontrollable speed and ran into the side of the trail. Got header panel and right front fender damage that I can fix no problem. I am fairly handy. What is baking my noodle right now is the steering damage. Prior to bumping the soil my steering wheel was running straight down the road clocked at about 11:30. just to the left of center. It is now clocked at a little short of 10;00, rather far left of center. The jeep still tracks straight down the highway at 65. No loose feeling or strange (new) noises. (typical jeep that talks to me all the time while in motion). No pulling, no scuffing of tires ect. I have looked and do not see any bent parts or bend in the steering gear mount. I did the V8 ZJ steering upgrade some time ago so .. Fun Fact! the much stronger ZJ components move the weak point of the system elsewhere!.. I just an not sure where that weak point is. I do not see any bends in any of the components. Nothing looks amiss. So if anyone has any ideas of what I did to my jeep please let me know.
I tried taking the steering shaft loose at the gear to rotate it and straighten the steering wheel that way only to discover that it don't work that way. So before I pull the steering wheel and reclock my steering so the wheel is straight when the jeep is going straight down the road I thought I should check and figure out what happened first. Oh and second question if I may. Will reclocking the steering wheel this far mess with my turn signal cancel? Right now I have to cancel the left turn manually. Or would it be better to pull the pitman arm straighen the steering wheel that way? (it may be just like the steering shaft for all I know. I have not pulled one before)

Thanks
Hapdad

 

Before I'd be concerned with correcting the steering wheel position which is adjusted at the drag link I'd check to see if the axle is off center of the vehicle. You can measure on each side from the inner fender out to the edge of the tire.

 

Thanks for the reply. The axle is still centered side to side. The hit was on the right front while still moving forward. If anything the angle of impact would have pushed the right front tire back. (if the axle moved at all) I needed to turn to the left as the vehicle descended the hill and was unable to. I almost missed the impact. 6 more inches to the left and i would have only had sidewall scuffs. (If a better description of the hit will help) As I said the vehicle tracks straight and true at 65 on the highway. ( well if it is dog tracking I wouldn't be able to see it.).. Simply driving the vehicle you wouldn't think anything was amiss if not for the steering wheel so far off center.
Thanks
Hapdad

 

Actually I had the same thing happen a few years back. Went into a rocky side ditch at about 25mph. Bent the upper control arm mount and almost tore the lower mount off of the axle housing. Ruined the lower control arm. Pushed the right side of the axle back about 1.5". Split the edge of the rim and ruined the tire. I put the spare on and drove the vehicle home 45mins away. Sometimes at 60-65mph. Didn't feel like anything was wrong. Just like you describe.

Guess you could check your toe-in since you say the axle is centered and then center your steering wheel.

 

Wow thats rough dude. I will have to take a real good look at the control arms.
Thanks
Hapdad

 

x2 on not trying to pull and center the steering wheel or pitman arm. You tweaked something - control arm, drag link, track bar, etc. If the toe-in is still good, you could just adjust the drag link and call it good. Probably only needs less than 1/2 turn.

 

x2 on checking control arm mounts both to the axle and unibody frame. Sometimes its hard to see even the slightest bend of the mounts so I would measure to make sure the axle is not pushed back on one side. I have this issue on my ZJ after dropping into a very deep pothole while on some trails this past hunting season.

 

Well the axle was pushed back about 1/4" on the right side. Just corrected that and the steering is still off center. I bent something else but have no idea what. I think I will just wait till i get it lifted and find out when I take it in for an alignment. Thanks for the replies.
Hapdad