jat9058

Ever since my lift I have the same problem. It has been driving me nuts since, but is really getting quite annoying. When I sit in my Jeep, with the wheels straight, the steering wheel is about 10 degrees to the left. Same thing when I drive, it sits about 10 degrees to the left when I am going straight. Not to mention, I still bounce all over the place, which is probably my caster not being high enough, I have adjustable control arms for the front, but had them installed by a mechanic and he didn't push them to get the caster high enough, I think he just put them on? I don't really have a whole lot of tools or otherwise to do this type of thing at home. If anyone gets a good solution to this I would like to hear it. I thought maybe it had something to do with not have an adjustable track bar in the front, but that was just a guess. I tried re-centering the steering wheel, but that didn't do much at all. Where the centering tool says its centered is where the steering wheel is tilted to the left.

gimp_dkd

It seems that all of us having this same problem are running the RC 4" kit.

Littlejon

On a lifted vehicle if the road leans or has any crown to it is will be more noticable along with wind causing it to handle funny. Since you mentioned going one direction on the road you will be holding the wheel to the left, and the other direction on the same road it will be to the right I would think that it is possible to road has a lean in it, or there is a constant wind from one direction. The only other thing I could think of is the pitman arm being loose, or when you adjusted the drag link the turn buckle might not have been tightened enough.

If it was a steering stabalizer issue usually it will tend to cause the vehicle to have a constant pull in the same direction no matter what. If it was a track bar issue you would have death wobble.

john smack

big tires pull and are affected by inconsistancies on highways. Mine pulls but always in the same spots and the same ways in certain areas, does this in my jeep, did this in my chev, and buddies have the same problems.
I put my stock tires on the other day and had no problems at all

nthinuf

Go spend $20-30 for tools and an angle finder. No reason to live with flighty handling.
http://project-jk.com/jeep-jk-write-...-end-alignment


Bent tie rod?

Jusaplaya

You might be right. I always thought wheel was pretty much center going straight down road. Mine isn't that much off, just noticeable. Like I said though mine is no way making feel not in control of the vehicle. This is my first lifted vehicle.

Dr.McNinja

So, luckily I never had the wobble. First I noticed that the wheel wasn't straight but thought little of it (crown of road, etc). Then on the highway I noticed that sometimes I would turn and it would take a second, then a larger shift would occur. I had a huge dead space at the top of the wheel. It would also "clunk" into place, but only when turning right. So I finally got my wife to turn the wheel while I watched. Sure enough, the frame side drop down bracket for the track bar in front would rotate on the bolt that goes fore/aft, and the sideways bolt wasn't holding it at all. I went and put a tone of threadlocker on it, and it hasn't done it since. All the steering problems were rectified as well.
Don't know how I never got a high speed oscillation, but never did.
I'm tempted to weld the bracket on (or remove it completely).

wayoflife

in all fairness, you would need something to trigger the DW. a loose track bar in and of itself won't do it - just allow it to happen. glad you got things fixed before it became a problem

gimp_dkd

I put some thread locker on and tightened up the front track bar relocation bracket bolts....... and it worked!!! It seems to have solved the problem.

Before I did this I had a friend cycle the steering wheel back and forth as I watched the mount and I could definitly see it move. Not much, but it did move.

If the problem does happen to return I think a few simple spot welds to the bracket should fix the problem for good.

Thanks to everyone for their help on this one.

interceptor_1972

I know this topic is a little old, but just wanted to see if a loose trackbar relocation bracket was determined to be the cause of this issue or are some people still having the same problem?

My problem seems to have started back when I replaced my stock steering stabilizer with a RC Duals. Now the issue I have is similar to what the OP mentioned; to start with, I have the steering centered dead on with the wheels heading straight - I can take my hands off the wheel and it'll drive down a straight path [with the exception of following road crowns, which is expected]. The first time I do a 90 degree right turn, and after finishing the turn, when I start back to driving straight, I notice my steering wheel is now leaning a little to the right - approx. if you draw a line at the 10 'o clock position to the 4 'o clock position. And it stays there till I do a 90 degree left turn and voila, steering is back dead center again.

I've gotten under the JK and had a friend turn the steering side to side and did not notice any play or shifting in the drop pitman arm, the trackbar relocation bracket or the trackbar itself. And I do have to agree with gimp_dkd - it would appear that most of us having this issue are running a RC 4" Lift. While it doesn't appear to be hurting anything or causing any issues, I would sure love to fix this major annoyance for good but at a loss on what to check.