I've owned my current XJ(2001 classic) for about 1 month, and have been putting in some good work to make sure it will run for another 200K miles. I'm going to be doing some traveling with it, so I really want to make sure she's buttoned up.

Steering: While on the highway in particular, I find it tough to keep my Cherokee from "walking" across lanes. It isn't TERRIBLE, but it just seems so touchy I guess... very little steering wheel movement and I'm headed for the other lane. What makes it frustrating is the little bit of play in the steering wheel (stay with me). there seems to be an inch or so of rotation where the wheel is super loose before catching, but when it catches it catches hard.

Suspension: The previous owner equipped a 3" RC lift and 33x12.5x15 Pro Comp Tires. when driving over a speed bump, or any rough road, I hear a harsh clang coming from the rear-end almost like I'm bottoming out.

Ideas/thoughts?

I don't know **** about these topics, and I'm just looking for some direction. I don't want to take it into shop and have them check it out, but I feel like it might be my best bet.

Pictures:



Trimmed fenders


















Exhaust mount is pretty rusted and loose








Small leak near the front of my oil pan? Looked green... ��





Sway bar link has pretty torn up rubber grommets

 

The noise in the rear could be anything but my guess is the tailpipe hitting the leaf hanger, for starters on where to look.


The steering could be quite a few different issues also start with the track bar, check it for tightness and see if its either been properly adjusted or replaced with a new one for starters. Without seeing your steering setup its hard to tell what's going on for sure, photos would be helpful.


With a 3" lift and 33x12:50 tires the fenders must have been trimmed as well for additional clearance, can you tell how much they were trimmed? Mine even with this amount of lift and I still rubbed in the rear till I installed bumpstops.


Here is my 99 with a 3" lift and 33x12:50x15's. and trimmed quite a bit.

 

Some of the steering could be alignment but it sounds like something is worn out. If it's towed in or out too much it will get "darty".

If you still have the stock steering setup there is a bit of a dead spot where the drag link and tie rod actually roll over front to back taking up the slack in all of the tie rod joints before actually moving the wheels.

Cross over style steering cuts down on this but it's still there. How much depends on how worn your tie rods are and the design of the system itself. Everything in the steering system has joints all the way up the steering shaft so any little play can add up to a lot of wheel movement. Could be a warn out steering pump too.

The banging, I agree with Fred/N0AZZ. Start with exhaust tip/shackle bolt contact. I had to flip the hanger around backwards and drill some holes to move it in away from the shackle bolts.

Also check to see if the swing shackle is hitting the rear cross member/bumper bolts. The longer springs will push the shackle past it's stock location and make a heck of a bang. I changed to boomerang shackles on mine to fix it. That's the quickest and easiest way but there are shackle relocators too.

Again as Fred/N0AZZ said, with that lift and those tires there should be a lot of fender cut out. If not it could just be your tires bashing into the body.

 

I think I've heard that slop in your steering can come from worn u-joints in your steering shaft. I had it bad in my '84 Cherokee, and remember my dad always saying something about it when he would drive it.

 

Alright, I finally got some pics posted. I taking the Jeep in tomorrow to a local custom shop to have them look over my suspension, just to make sure everything is up to par. as far as the steering, I put eyes on everything and from what I can tell it all looks very solid. The only play I noticed was from the steering shaft into the steering box. The shaft was moving quite a bit before there was a reaction in any of the steering elements. So, perhaps an adjustment is in order?

 

Bleepinjeep has a video on how to check for worn u-joints here:
It's for driveshafts and front axles, but the same principles apply to any u-joint. You've got two in your steering shaft before you get to the box.