my 95 xj is the love of my life. shes had a lot of play in the steering since i got her. i wanna say i can turn the wheel about 3 to 5 inches in both directions before i start to turn. i have some money now where i can start to get some parts..more importantly i just want to start doing this stuff myself.

any suggestions on where and how to start?

 

Have somebody turn the wheel back and forth while you're under the front looking. It doesn't hurt to hold on to parts while the steering wheel is being turned either, feeling for popping or movement you might not see. Then take it from there.

 

Lift the front end up in the air and start pulling and pushing on things to see which parts are loose.

I tried the on the ground turn the wheel method and caught one or teo things.

Took mine to a shop and paid them for one half hour of labor and got a more informed opinion after their front end align guy did his inspection.

 

You either have worn tierod ends in the steering linkage or you have worn trac Bar bushings on the axle end or tierod end on the frame end. Like the guy before said. Get underneath and start wiggling these componants. Any movement in any of them means they are BAD!!

 

With that much play in the steering my bet is on bad trac bar componants.

 

Watch for movement wherever you see a grease fitting. My track bar would move up and down 1/16"-1/8" when the wheels were turned from side to side. The bushing end was fine. Track bar replaced and back to tight steering.

 

TRACK BAR! Just replaced mine last week and my steering was very loose like yours. It's very responsive now.

 

It can be anything that involved with your front axle. I would start at your steering box, look at the mount and make sure the "frame" isn't cracked. Then check that the box itself is functioning correctly. Be sure that the teeth that the pitman ARM attach to are in good shape. Then all bushings and joints on the drag link, tie rod, track bar. That should get you startedol

 

just put in the track bar and had her aligned..shes good as new..thanks every1 =]