Steering wheel sideways and alignment wont help?
 

Just a quick question for you guys. I have a 98 Cherokee with a 3" zone lift sitting on 32s. I did the lift no problem and replaced the front bumper. While I replaced the front bumper I replaced the steering box. When I got everything hooked back up I noticed the steering wheel was sitting sideways. Didnt think much of it cuz i had to get an alignment anyway. Took it to get aligned and they said my drag link is already bottomed out and there isnt anything they can do. They suggested a drop pitman arm but its only a 3" lift. If anyone ran into this before I appreciate the help. Thanks.

Track bar been relocated or adjustable one installed to compensate for lift ?

Adjustable one installed and I compensated it for the lift but just to double check what would you recommend for a 3" for length?

Disconnect new bar. Start jeep turn steering wheel which ever direction it takes to center body of xj over axle. Looking at tire to fender distance when standing in front of xj when you satisfied its equal shut down engine let steering wheel lock in position. Then adjust bar to new length. Once your happy with it then turn adjustng sleeve by pitman arm to center wheel.

I'll give that a try and see what i can get from there. When I took it for an alignment they said the drag link was already bottomed out so I'm hoping I can still rotate it

Reread above I deleted that.

Got it thanks. So basically let the steering wheel lock wherever it ends up and adjusting the sleeve will turn the steering wheel straight?

You got it . Adjust track bar then sleve

Appreciate the help. Hopefully this gets it right

.sleeve

Are you sure you clocked the pitman arm correctly? I had issues with mine when I did it and I apparently had the steering input shaft upside down (but the steering wheel was fully upside down)

it does sound like you need to simply adjust the drag-link and sleeve though.

Originally the steering wheel was upside down completely when I first put it all back together after the steering box. THey corrected some on alignment. How was I supposed to clock the pitman arm correctlY?

Got everything straightened out and I'm good to go now. Thanks for the help everyone

What ended up being the problem/solution (out of curiosity)?

The pitman arm can only go on one way, but I had my steering input shaft upside down by accident (I couldn't get it to release at the collar of the steeiring gear, so I pulled out the lower part of the shaft from the steering shaft - it just slips on).
When I went to reinstall it, I had the shaft upside down and I couldn't figure out WTF I did to screw the orientation or if the steering gear was "upside down". Finally realized I put the shaft on upside down - took it off, flipped it 180* and all was well.

So my buddy and I tackled the job tonight trying to figure it out. The drag link was already bottomed out on one end and the steering wheel was still sideways. We loosened the buckle on the drag link and rotated until the steering wheel went completely the other way. Once it made it to being straight we tightened everything up. When I pulled it out of the shop I realized I could make a full left turn very sharp.

Pulled it back in the shop and put the drag link back how we had it. Ended up just loosening the Teraflex adj track bar and rotating that. For some reason this caused the steering wheel to rotate into position and only moved my axle about 1/4" off. tightented it back up went for a test drive anda ll is well. I think the track bar just wasnt set to the correct length and w/ a combo of stock control arms it was just pulling on everything and causing the steering wheel to rotate when i had everything unhooked.