Ok I've been a member for a little while mainly reading and searching. I think this is my first posted question so dont beat on me too bad... I bought a 2011 JK 2dr new in June of 2011. I finally wore out the factory tires in March and installed the Trailmaster 3.5 lift with arms, coils, dropped pitman arm and new links and installed 16x8 Procomp LaPaz wheels with 16/75/315 Hankook dynapro mt tires. I did purchase the Superchips flashcal and got all the upgrades downloaded to tune as well and calibrated to match the tires and it is correct according to my f150. With that being said this is my first jeep but not my first lifted vehicle. I have resolved steering issues before but this one has me boggled. I have searched and I do have bumpsteer issues that I plan on resolving with a double damper steering stabilizer. This issue almost reminds me of a bad rag joint. When I go into some turns or even correcting the bump steer sometimes, I can turn the wheel and it acts as if it isnt going to turn like a delayed input to the box or something. Has anyone had this problem or know what is causing it? It makes me pucker up a little sometimes. Will the stabilizer solve this problem? Or do I have another issue.

 

Dual stabilizer is a waste of money. Get rid of the drop pitman arm and install a draglink flip kit and I'm about 95% sure your bumpsteer issues will go away.

Also did you have an alignment done after the lift?

 

By the way here is my Jeep

 

Yes had an alignment done and wheel centered

 

Post the specs from the alignment.

Stuck to the top of the Writeups area is a great diagnosis for dw/shimmy. Read through it and follow the steps to find out if you have any worn components.

As noted above, drop pitmans don't have the best reputation. IF you remove it, be sure to also remove the trackbar bracket. They work together. Remove only one, and your steering will get worse, not better.

Some posts indicate that drop pitmans put extra stress on the steering box itself. Wouldn't be a bad idea to check it and make sure the bolts are still tight and the box itself isn't wiggling around. For the delayed input, could be the box internals. Or a loose drop pitman? Twisted sector shaft? Or maybe loose trackbar bolts or wallowed out holes? A tweaked stabilizer? Could be a lot of things, I suppose.

But also as noted above, adding a super-duper new stabilizer setup will only mask the real issue. Spend the time to find the actual problem!


Another thought, have you verified that the trackbar bracket was actually installed with the drop pitman? Using both, you keep the trackbar and draglink parallel to each other. If only the pitman was installed...

 

I installed the lift myself just two months ago. Yes the pitman arm is on and the TB drop bracket also. Tires are balanced very well. I know that a SS will only mask some issues but, as a steering system originally designed with a SS that is put under a load of larger tires would need more dampening though. I have checked bolts for Tq and they are good to go. I havent checked the pitman arm for loosiness and will do so after I get home from work. I did find one of the swaybar links bolt loose and tq'd it and it didnt cure the issue. I am going to chalk the tires and get a good pressure on them after reading up some more. I dont think this is DW as much as some sort of input to the steering gear box or the like. I actually dont have any out of control wobble thet I have experienced.

 

I checked the write ups section sticky on DW and fixes and watched the video and I definately do not have DW. I am going to check the sector shaft as well as making sure the gear box itself isnt loose and pitman arm for slop.

 

Well it's not entirely for death wobble. Going thru the steps helps identifies loose or failing components. And there are people running no steering stabilizer with larger tires with no issues because everything is dialed in the way it should be. So we aren't just throwing out nonsense when we say there is no need for a dual stabilizer and you can spend the money elsewhere. But it's your rig and your entitled to do what you want with it I hope you get it figured out.

 

I understand that and its why I am looking for some ideas or answers to fix this dilema before I waste money on a SS. We had a 1 ton dodge that had loose steering issues or DW to this case and it was the track bar and is a known issue for those trucks. The front end of the jeep is damn near the same setup but, the problems are different. I am looking for a root cause. Thank you for the reply. Where or who has the DL flip kit? I want to look into it also.

 

The Synergy (Poly Performance) setup is probably the most popular flip. When you are looking around, you might notice that a few of the kits on the market use stock draglinks from RHD jk's. Just an opinion, but if you are wanting to swap to heavier duty components, paying for a kit with new 'stock' components doesn't cut it.

But before you go that route, swap back to the stock pitman and remove the trackbar bracket and go for a drive. You might find that you are ok without adding the expense for the flip. (I drove around with a 4" lift for several years before flipping and raising either of the trackbars. Admittedly it handles better with them, but didn't drive bad without)