Alright, for the last few weeks I've been trying to get the steering on my XJ as perfect and tight as possible. I put on a 1-ton JCR UTK steering upgrade, got it aligned, checked the bushing on the track bar, checked to see if my drag link and track bar were parallel (they are pretty close), and I just recently adjust my power steering box which actually helped a lot on bringing things tighter, but I am still have a little issue.

When I am on the highway doing around 50-60 the truck still wants to wander a bit from side to side. Guys with 5"+ lifts, is this normal? I am beginning to think it is because my COG is too high. My rear wheels are also about 3" farther out than my fronts so I am thinking this may have something to do with it. I am getting spacers to even the front out and stabilize the COG much more soon.

Does any of this make sense to you guys?

Also, when I was doing ~50 mph yesterday and had to make an abrupt stop my truck started to sway side to side pretty hard when I had to slam on the brakes. It was pretty scary. I'd really like to get this fixed so any help would be extremely appreciated. Thank you.

 

I am not running a sway bar at the moment either. I am currently painting it then bolting it back up. Planning on a ~4,000 mile trip throughout the month of December coming up so I am trying to get everything squared away for a nice safe ride.

 

run the sway bar if you are going 60 mph plus ghost.

 

TY Casper. Sway bar is in the midst of being put back on. Just need to paint them and the rain cut that short today. But I can't see that solving all of my problems.

 

Ttt

 

Sway bar and check the castor.

 

How do you check the casters exactly?

 

I am at 5+" lift and mine sways on the highway too. I'm in the middle of checking to see in my steering box is bad. I posted up a video to ask others for input if my steering wheel play is too much. Might help you and I to watch each others thread.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/vid...ng-box-152610/

 

The taller you go and the bigger tire you run you're going to have more wander in my experience. That is just with other lifted vehicles though, I just got my lift installed and have not had the opportunity to drive my XJ since then but I imagine I'll have some wander as well.

As far as the back and forth movement of the Jeep under hard braking, I bet the sway bar would take care of 90% of that. There are a lot of forces on your suspension/Jeep when braking hard at higher speeds, the sway bar will help even those out and make it more stable.

 

why are your rear wheels out 3" farther than your fronts?

 

yah i think your front should actually track a little wider than the rear.

 

I just adjusted my power steering box a few weeks ago. It helped some of the problem but not all of it. Saving for a 99 Durango steering upgrade now.

My rear tires had a wider stance because the previous owner who installed the 8.8 added spacers to the rear for some reason and not the front. Since last posting in this thread I have evened it out so that the front is actually .5" or so wider than the rear. It helped a lot with the issue but I think my power steering box is the main culprit with this problem.

Sway definitely helped with braking. I threw it back on around 2 weeks ago after painting it.