awork

I recently added a 3" zone lift kit and IRO double shear track bar on my 97 Jeep cherokee. The weather has been warmer the last couple days and it has developed some noise in the front end. It is like a creaking noise when turning the wheel. It does it sitting and while driving. When the weather was cold for the last couple months it never made a noise. I have crawled under and had someone turn the wheel but can't narrow it down. It does it loud enough to hear it while driving.
Any ideas on what the issue could be? I plan on greasing everything that can be greased soon to see if that fixes the issue.

Thanks

canada_man

have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while you get underneath and feel all the steering joints. Hands may find what the eyes can't see. Probably has to do with your trackbar is my guess. Have you re tightened all the tb bolts, for the trackbar and bracket.

awork

What steering joints do i need to feel? I haven't rechecked the trackbar bolts but that is my plan tomorrow. Any idea why it would just start after the weather warms up? Think maybe just everything expanding and contracting with the warmer weather?

Fred/N0AZZ

You need to retighten everything after you have driven a 100 miles or so, or after the first time you off road it. Then every time you take if off road recheck everything they get loose.

t_long

This happened to me too. Turned out my trac bar was loose. I would definitely start by checking that.

sycoglitch

This. OP check the TB bracket

awork

So I went through yesterday and checked all of the bolts on the track bar and bracket. None of them were by any means lose but i was able to snug up two on the bracket a little. It seems to have stopped the noise for now.

Thanks guys! Hopefully that fixed my issue!

sycoglitch

If you snugged them trust us they were loose. The Trac bar sees some good force and every so often the bolts loosen just a hair and the force against the TB makes the noise as it moves every so slightly

t_long

Did you check the axle-side bolt? That's where mine was loose. Should have specified that, sorry.

Fred/N0AZZ

You need to recheck all the hardware you installed for your lift kit also. They all tend to loosen up on a new install mine did on several different fasteners and all needed to be re-torqued just to be safe.

sycoglitch

Its actually in the instructions to do that too