Hi all,

Yesterday I was a little rough on my xj 1993 when offroad.. took a couple of hard knocks up front. Today, driving to work I noticed a distinct knocking noise up front when turning right (quite loud). Also a sort of vibration and quiet rumbling up around the front axle (mostly just when pulling away). Also theres about 4 or 5 inches of play in the steering... meaning i can move the steering 4 or 5 inches left or right and it has no effect at all on the wheels..
Ive got a lot to learn when it comes to home mechanics, so any advice from you veterans would be appreciated.. Im guessing either ujoints or track bar, or mabye tie rod ends.. hope its not the steering box. Ive got access to a forklift at work, so I can get the old jeep up in the air no problem - just need to know what to look for!.
Thanx for reading guys.

 

Check your tie rods, track bar mounts, cv joints and ball joints.

The steering sounds like your tie rods, the knocking can be your tie rods as well but the other components I listed knock when abused or need to be replaced.

 

Thanks diesel - super fast response and gives me precise locations to check out - appreciated.

 

I'd look into CV joints and tie rod ends. With that much play the damage should be obvious.

 

thanx Gee, appreciate your help.

 

got it up in the air last night - from what I can see both of the tie rod ends are in a bad way.. must have been hanging by a thread before I went off road. Also something that the haynes manual refers to as the "pitman arm", has little to no rubber bushing at the end.. its sitting metal on metal. The ujoints and ball joints seem to be in good shape, and everything else seems to be quite solid. Now I just need to find a good thread on how to change the tie rod ends!.
Thanx for the advice on where to look for problems guys - appreciate it.