i have a 00 xj sport with a dana 30 up front im having a problem when i turn either direction the steering is smooth as silk but as the steering wheel comes back to center it jerks almost feels like the steering box is missing some teeth or something. i drained some power steering fluid and added some of the lucas steering fix stuff and it hasnt made a difference any ideas? also ive put new wheel bearing and ball joints up front with no difference

 

One note for you,there is no such thing as a mechanic in a can. Maybe ur steering box is loose.

 

you mean loose on the frame or do they have the play adjustment like the toyota boxes do? and i know that the lucas was a long shot but its only 6 bucks so it was worth a shot lol

 

Axle u-joints locked up? Did you replace them when you did the unit bearings?

 

man i checked them and they seemed to be free and in great shape and i rotated the axle while i had it out and it spun very free so im thinking its a box problem

 

Jack the front of the vehicle up & support it. Turn the steering wheel to full lock rotate the wheel by hand and look at the joint, if it wobbles at all it's toast. I assume if you suspect the pump to be the problem it's not making any type of unusual noise?

 

naw no noise at all and yeah i havent tried the jacking it up thing. i need to do that i just assumed that they were ok cause they look and feel great and it dont clunk around in 4wd. i had a wrangler that the joints were bad up front and it clunked around when wheeling thats how i knew they were bad.

 

well i figured out my steering prob!!!! i went to the alignment shop today and they said my ball joints where bad so i had them show me while it was on the rack because the normal test i always do when i rotate my tires showed me that they were ok but the guy there took a pry bar and pushed up on the tires and they floped around like crazy. another crazy thing is they quoted me almost 700 bucks to do it. so i went to the local parts store bought all 4 balljoints for 100 bucks and rented the ball joint press for 150 so that saved me alot of money and my steering is great now. but i would have to say that this was the most pain in the a$% job i have ever done lol took me 4 hours todo both sides