Rod9

Hey there, Recently I was on a trail with steep ups and downs.
Everytime I went down and turned, I felt my steering wheel going out of control, had to hold the wheel pretty tight to not lose control. No problems while going up though. My 01' is pretty much stock. Anyone have any ideas why is this happening?

Here is a pic of that day.


at 10 000 feet.

investinwaffles

When you say "out of control" do you mean the steering wouldn't respond to your input, and the jeep was pulling another direction? Was it deep sand (which will cause the vehicle to "plow" when going down)?

I would assume worn out front steering components (tie rod ends, track-bar bushings, steering gear-box, etc).
Have someone turn the wheel while you look at the steering and see if you see any places that have play in them.

I had a crap ton of play in my steering - I replaced everything and it still was present, so I had the steering gear rebuilt locally and it feels like a new Jeep

Rod9

It was going the right direction, but it was hard to keep it going that way, like trying to pull me off the road. No deep sand just gravel and rocks.

Thanks I will definitely check the steering now. Do you think a new steering stabilizer would do the trick?

investinwaffles

Not really, the stabilizer just keeps high-speed bumps from pulling one direction.

If you have a lot of play, it might feel like you are turning the steering wheel more than you need to, to achieve the necessary steering correction at the tires (hopefully that makes sense). Just a guess though, hard to diagnose suspension issues over the internet