1989 cherokee steering wheel play
- Thread starter doowa
- Start date
MudderChuck
New member
Take a close look at your steering box pitman shaft (the one poking out the bottom). A little play here and a little play there adds up. After a certain age, removing the play becomes a pretty much continious thing (every year I replace something). A few thousandths in the tie rod ends, a few thousandths in the track bar, even a little play in the steering knuckle joints. Try having a buddy turn the steering wheel a little left and right, while looking closely at the pitman shaft or the ball joints. The steering knuckle joints can be checked by lifting the front end, jack stands under the frame and having a buddy pry up (lightly/moderatly) with a peice of 2 X 4, you can often hear the knuckle joints (ball joints) click or see some movement at the joints.
Another thing worth a look, is the universal joint in the steering column shaft. I´ve never seen a Jeep have one fail (other than a wreck) but have seen a few Dodges with excessive wear.
Another thing worth a look, is the universal joint in the steering column shaft. I´ve never seen a Jeep have one fail (other than a wreck) but have seen a few Dodges with excessive wear.
I seem to have developed a similar problem. I have a tilt wheel and it has gotten very loose right behind the tilt mechanism. The steering wheel moves about 6†side to side now. I am not sure how to get in there to tighten it up or to see if I have broken something. I know that the steering link in front of the tilt mechanism is good. There is NO play in any of the other steering components all the way out to the wheels. How do I get in there without pulling the column out? Do I have to pull the column out to fix this?
suesvetteXJ
New member
tightening the column is easy--just remove the steering wheel, lock plate, turn signal switch, and you will have access to 4 bolts that commonly come loose. just retighten these bolts and you should be fine
as for the loose frt end feeling---you may need to adjust the steering box backlash--the is an adjustment on top of the saginaw boxes in XJ's that can be tightened if that is the culprit--just loosen the lock nut, tighten down the center adjuster( not too tight or it binds) and tighten the jamp nut. It will be a noticeable difference.
Sue
as for the loose frt end feeling---you may need to adjust the steering box backlash--the is an adjustment on top of the saginaw boxes in XJ's that can be tightened if that is the culprit--just loosen the lock nut, tighten down the center adjuster( not too tight or it binds) and tighten the jamp nut. It will be a noticeable difference.
Sue
This is a little more involved than "just remove the steering wheel, lock plate, turn signal switch, and you will have access to 4 bolts". After removing all of the aforementioned components I found that the ignition lock cylinder had to come out and the upper column sleeve then I can see 2 of the 4 bolt heads. They are reverse torx tip bolts. Now that I can see them that does not mean that I can get a socket/wrench/tip of finger on them. I am going to take some pic's and post them. All 4 of these bolts are completely out but I can't get them out of the column. 2 of them I can see no way to get to the bolt heads. If anyone has done this on a tilt wheel that has the wiper controls on the blinker arm please help me out. It almost seems that a new column would be easier to put in than to repair the old one, I just have this thing for fixing what I already have.
posi-lok is installed
I know this is an elcamino page but the process is the same and this is a better write up than I was doing. http://www.necoa.org/article95.html
I know this is an elcamino page but the process is the same and this is a better write up than I was doing. http://www.necoa.org/article95.html
This is a better write up than I was doing with better pictures. I know it is an elcamino but the column is exactly the same. http://www.necoa.org/article95.html
