mphilleo

I think the last time I replaced TREs on a solid front axle vehicle was years and years back, once on an XJ Cherokee and another time on a 90 Series Landcruiser. When I did those, I noticed the steering improved overall and input effort was a little firmer. Pretty normal stuff.

Anyway, last year I had my JKU at the alignment shop for some work and they said they noticed the TRE that goes to the pitman arm was getting some play. Not hard to believe, since I'm pretty sure that my Jeep was on its original front end with nearly 90,000 miles on it. I kept that in mind and found a good deal on MOOG DS800982A, which is the full steering linkage assembly, complete with greaseable ends. So the next time I had my Jeep at the shop, they installed the assembly, greased it and realigned it (I could've done it, but I didn't have the time or energy over the holidays.). According to the printout, everything was good. Cool.

When I drove the Jeep home from the shop, I noticed the steering was twitchy and required a fair bit more input than my old steering linkages. It also seemed like the crown of the road manifested itself more in the steering wheel position a bit more. Figuring it was maybe road conditions or they overfilled the tires as they usually do, I checked it out. Nope, tires were at about 33 PSI. I did noticed that the steering damper mount on the lower drag link was mounted to the left side (there were witness marks from the plastic shield against the metal housing on the damper). I also verified this by measuring where it mounted on the old parts, which I still had. Figuring that might also be contributing to the twitchy steering or right-hand pull bias, I shifted it over to the passenger side about a half an inch and snugged it down by lining up the witness marks. To be honest, I'm not even sure if steering damper alignment would've made much of a difference either way.

After driving it to work this morning, the roads were pretty clear and there wasn't a whole lot of wind to speak of, but it behaved about the same way. I'm trying to figure out if this is because it's new joints and there's less slop in them. My old linkages weren't bad by any stretch, but there was probably more of a dead spot in it due to wear over the years. I used to be able to drive it with one hand resting on the door sill, but it seems like more effort is required to keep it straight now. They're the ones that did the alignment that was fine before and this printout was good too as I mentioned. Is my theory regarding wear plausible or do I have bad parts or a bad install? Unfortunately, I got them from RockAuto, so I'm stuck with them at this point. Am I crazy or is this a thing any of you guys have experienced after having your steering redone? I thought I was being smart by having everything done at once, but I might've been better off just replacing the one TRE with the Mopar part.

XJRefugee

Just to rule it out... when performing the alignment , was the caster changed? what is the caster reading now? I just changed out both the tie rod and drag link and noticed no difference in feel, no twitchy action or wandering over the road. IMO you should feel a tighter more responsive steering with a new "tight" TRE.

mphilleo

I'd have to see what the caster specs are on the printout (they're at home). Here's the funny thing. Before I brought the Jeep in for all this, I personally installed MetalCloak adjustable front upper/lower control arms. These were mounted on Rough Country geometry correction brackets which were there with the OEM control arms. It might sound like overkill, but I did it so they'd match the MetalCloak rears I had installed by the shop previously and handle equally.

Anyway, for a few days before I brought it in for this last service, I was still driving around with my OEM steering components and the MetalCloak control arms all around. Drove great, solid, planted, predictable steering. It completely changed after this service. Even though I painstakingly matched the length of the front MC control arms to the OEMs I took off so as to not throw anything off, I figured I wanted them in place before the appointment in case the shop felt it necessary to make adjustments. To my knowledge they didn't. That's why I'm so confused. The only thing that should've changed is the steering components and a realignment by the shop. But yeah, I'll take a closer look at the alignment sheet or post it to this thread.

XJRefugee

nothing wrong with "overkill" especially if you are adding Metalcloak adjustable control arms front and rear! good move. Yes, good idea to install the adjustable arms before the alignment. very curious as to the caster angle. Since you are stock height, what was your reasoning to install the correction brackets? my understanding is that they are only needed if a lift was added and correction was needed to flatten out the front arms?

mphilleo

Oh, shoot, for all the detail I put in, I didn't even mention this Jeep came installed with a Rough Country 3.25" lift when I bought it. There was no compensation made for caster (which is why I did the geo brackets) and noting for pinion angle in the rear (which is why the MC rear control arms are there), and it kind of snowballed into all of this. So my caster should be pretty good. Visually it looks correct.

I've checked elsewhere and another community member suggested checking for items not torqued to spec showing up as free play when turning lock to lock. I haven't done that yet, but I guess it's worth a shot.

XJRefugee

thank you for clarification. I ran those correction brackets for awhile with no issues. They work well for what they are intended to do.

mphilleo

Here's a copy of the alignment printout if you have any insights. Bear in mind this was aligned previously in mid October.

XJRefugee

Well obviously with 5 degrees of caster it is not your alignment. Hopefully someone out there has experienced your condition and will chime in. After re-reading your first post, your thoughts are logical but why this is happening is beyond me.

mphilleo

I re-verified the lengths of the front control arms and found they were all within 1/16-1/32 of an inch of each other, but the exposed thread counts were the same. I also checked for any loose fasteners on the front suspension and steering components, but didn't find any, although I was able get get maybe 1/8 to 1/16th of an extra turn on the front track bar turnbuckle bolts. Everything else was pretty snug. The only thing I can really think of at this point is my theory that there's just a degree of on-center slop with the old steering linkages and with new, tight joints (or just manufacturer differences), the steering is way more sensitive to steering input and correction, as well as road irregularities. It seems a lot more sensitive to road curvature and crown now. I appreciate all the follow up and feedback, but maybe it's just an acclimation thing. 🤷‍♂️