I have a 1996 Cherokee Sport. I had an issue with the car bump steering a lot,wandering,and having a loose steering wheel. A few of my tie rod ends were worn out,so I decided to replace them.

I replaced all the tie rod ends,the drag link,track bar,and steering stabilizer. I greased all the ball joints,and then got the car aligned.

I was hoping all this would fix my issue completely,but it's only improved a tiny bit. What else would be the cause of this?

 

control arm bushings

 

Lower,upper,or both?

 

Steering box, wheel bearings, ball joints.

Check and make sure you don't have any loose or broken bolts mounting the steering box, although they should have caught that during the alignment. No steering damper can cause a little wander if you're not paying attention.

 

If they are all 20 years old the correct answer is probably "c" both.

 

Ok thank you

 

I've got a steering dampener,although it feels like it's not even there. Unfortunately I'm leaning towards ball joints. I really don't want to deal with that on top of other issues I've got with the car like leaking rear main seal,fuel pump,and transmission cooler lines.

 

you also might want to check the frame where the steering box bolts up. common problem is those bolts like to crack the frame at the bolt heads.
you should be able to see the box moving when someone is inside turning the steering wheel left/right.

 

This'll be a dumb question,but where is the box exactly? What's it look like?

 

Pitman arm is attached to the steering gear box

 

front driver side frame rail. three large bolts in a triangle pattern. look closely around the bolt heads on the frame.

 

What are ways to test the steering box. doesn't seem like an expensive part to replace at RockAuto. Under 200 bucks.

 

Ok I'll check it out.

A new symptom I found today when I test drove it on the highway is I get a steering wheel vibration and a wobble somewhere on the right side of the car between 52-57 MPH. Not sure if this is part of it.

 

Is this vehicle lifted? If so, how much?

 

It hasn't been lifted yet. It's stock for the most part aside from bigger tires,but they've been on forever.

I just had my father take it for a drive to see what he thinks,he's older so of course he'll know more haha. He's standing firm on its a tire issue such as it being unbalanced. My guess is the alignment shop knocked a weight off,or maybe I did when I did the steering components.