I finished up rebuilding a 93 XJ. During the process I committed the cardinal sin of using a remanufactured steering box, unfortunately my original was pretty crusty and leaking badly, and in upstate NY junkyard OEM boxes aren't typically in much better condition.
Needless to say my steering is super loose with a dead zone between 10 and 2, to the point of I'm not real comfortable driving it, particularly on the highway. I tried some adjustment on the steering box sector shaft but saw no improvement. The entire front end (drag link, tie rods, adjustable track bar, stabilizer, ball joints) is new and torqued to spec, so I don't think its a loose/worn steering component issue.
I've seen posts/videos about steering box braces and the words "tightens" and "more responsive" once installed. Does anyone have any experience as to the before and after regarding loose or sloppy steering wheel feel with one of these braces? I see there's different types (clamp only vs, bearing on the pitman arm). I'm in a bind of whether to fork out money for another, higher graded gear box (like red head), or go the route of the brace and see how it responds. Money isn't abundant so I don't want to just throw a brace on if it really isn't going to 'tighten' the feel of the steering wheel up.

I'm running about 31" tires with a 3" lift.

Thanks for the help in advance

 

Unless your unibody is broken, the actual steering performance/function gains from a brace would be un-noticable.

the purpose of the brace is to aid in protection against deflection and unibody fatigue when running bigger tires and a steeper steering angle.

It would do nothing to "tighten" the steering slop your describing

 

Thanks.
Well, found the issue. Had the wife cycle the steering wheel while I watched, the upper forward mounting bolt is broken off with the head missing, so it's just flexing away from the rail.
Any tips on trying to drill those out? I thought they were grade 8 so I'm surprised it's broken

 

Remove the steering box from jeep, then remove broken bolt from steering box. Drill it out, do the weld-a-nut trick to the exposed remainder of the bolt. Either route shouldn't be too difficult as you had just replaced the box so it's not like there's 25+ years of crust to break through

 

Thanks for the information everyone. It's fixed. I was lucky in that the upper bolt sheared at the frame/steering box bracket, so I was able to use a bolt extractor to get the broken stud out. Only issue was the threads were mangled on the steering box and a 7/16-14 wouldn't work. I was able to tap it to M12-1.25 and get a bolt in, but I'm not totally satisfied with the thread fit. It did tighten down ok but I don't want to over torque it and strip it out. I may go with the steering brace just for the insurance, however the steering feels way better.

 

Felt happy reading this thread, good job

 

Yes was a good thread. Someone actually layed under theyre jeep with theyre eyes open.

You might fill the threads your unsure about with jub weld to tighten them up.

 

The steering box mounting bolts are a serious weak point on XJ, subject to factory recall.

It is bad design.

The box flexes slightly on the unirail, and over time this stress cracks the hard Grade 8 bolts, usually right where they join threads with the box..ie flush

Once the 1st one works loose, or snaps, the other 2 follow in short order, the top one goes first usually, once it snaps, traingulation is lost, and the already stressed-out bolts have full force directed in an entirely unsuitable way, and snap with a sound like a rifle shot

Its a good idea to use blue or even red loctite (heat to undo)

Any compromise of the thread is likely to be problematic. Check it regularly and carry suitable replacement bolts

Guess how I know all this

A well designed steering brace setup should minimise steering box deflection on the rail.

I will soon custom make my own brace, it will be made of steel plate, cut ground, welded and drilled to fit in with the factory alloy bullbar, which comes with very heavy duty mounting brackets (unlike the stock front bar, which has much flimsier mounting brackets)