OK well first things first I've got a 93 with a RE 5.5" short arm kit. Steering was a little loose nothing major up until today. I went to hop in the Jeep and grabbed the steering wheel and it popped loose. I thought to myself well I guess the lock inside the column broke loose and I'm not worried about it. Then came to time to drive the Jeep. At this point I noticed that my steering wheel is now way off centered from where it was and the steering seems way more loose. The pictures below are the steering wheel position now vs how it was before the "pop sound". Just to clarify the popping sound came from the column itself not any steering component in the front end.
In the attached video the wheels barley moved. I don't think it had that much play before. Any advice or a good starting point to find the problem would be awesome. Thanks in advanced

Before the popping sound


After the popping sound

 

1. pop the hood
2. look at the steering rod, see if it turns when you turn the wheel and nothing is broken
3. look at the pitman arm, see if it's moving when you turn the wheel.

if the steering rod going into the steering box is moving and you're not getting any movement out of the pitman arm, I assume your steering box is jacked.

 

It still steers I drove it home but I'm not gonna drive it again till I find the issue. I'll check everything you stated above thanks.

 

pull the horn button off and look to see if the nut came loose, or if the splines are buggered first. takes one second. in theory it should never come off, but i doesn't hurt to look.

 

Nuts tight.

On another note upon looking things over with the steering and turning the wheel back and forth it seems that the previous owner only had ONE BOLT HOLDING THE STEERING BOX ON! The lone bolt holding the steering box broke. Now Ill have to fix that and see if that has anything to do with what happen today. I still don't think it has anything to do with my steering wheel being off from where it started the day out at I guess we'll see. Any pointers on remounting the steering box?

 

If there is no longer bolts holding the steering box onto the body, I'm sure it shifted out of position slightly. That would definitely cause a tweek in your steering wheel.

Are there broken bolts in each of the 3 spots where there should be bolts mounting the box? You'll need to drill those out (probably need to drop the box to do so) and then remount it using new bolts. After you do that, I'm sure your steering will be much nicer.

 

Fortunately but unfortunately at the same time two bolts are missing completely and the one and only bolt that was there broke. The broken bolt has about a inch of threads sticking out still so I'm hoping I'll be able to get it out relatively easily. I'm just at a stand still today, I've got a buddy bringing me the bolts he has left over from his Xj tomorrow.

The only reason I think I still have another issue is the pop that I had in my steering column which lead to my original post.
It was as if the steering lock broke or something.

 

Sounds to me like that pop was that bolt breaking...

 

Happened to me also. Broken steering box bolt's was my cause. It will be good if you can thread it out instead of drilling. I opened the one of the holes a little much drilling it out and found myself with a new box shortly after. Make sure the bolts your buddy is giving you are grade 8 and in good condition. Although you have figured out your problem is broken bolts. Figure out what is causing them to break or you will be in for a long while of steering problems.

 

7/16" Course thread and 4 (or was it 3 1/2"?) inches long is the stock bolt for the steering box. Might want to go another 1/2" longer though in case you get a 1/4" plate steering box brace or swap to a durango box. Never hurts to get a longer bolt there.

 

Now's your chance to brace it. Make it better than it was before. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

Try to convince yourself that you heard that bolt break, and that the fact that no bolts are securing your steering box to the unibody is the reason your steering is off. Seems logical to me.

 

if the threads are messed up on the box you can drill it out and tap it to fit a 1/2 inch bolt. thats what i ended up doing to all three of my bolts after mine stripped out.