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Steering issues- GONE!

Upnarms

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I've been plagued with JL steering issues (as many others have had) since I bought my 2019 UR off the lot 3 years ago. I own a TJ had a JK and other than some DW, never had issues with wander, right pull, shimmy, slop in the wheel, etc. Like with the JL.

Fast forward to today and I've finally solved them. I know every jeep is a little different, but wanted to share what worked in my situation. The first thing I did was to replace the track bar with the steersmarts yeti. Solved death wobble issue but not the right pull/having to keep my hand always pushing the steering wheel to the left. Next, i installed the sector shaft brace by SS and the shop gave me a take off Fox steering stabilizer which improved things even further (thanks to Venture Offroad for the freebie). However, I still felt right pull and a little slop in the wheel and a little shimmy. This past week, i bit the bullet and got the Apex 2.5ton aluminum tie rod and drag link as well as the falcon nexus through shaft stabilizer.

Picked up my jeep a couple days ago and WOW. Steering stiffened up, everything feels tight, NO right pull and in fact I can turn the wheel to the left a little and it actually goes left! What a concept!

Sad I have to go through all the upgrades to get a vehicle that steers like it should from the factory, but I'm super thrilled everything is great now.

While the Apex set up isn't cheap, it was worth every penny and it's such a solid setup. Jeep seems to under build their steering and its a shame. This is how the jeep should steer from the factory.

Biggest difference maker was the Apex setup and I believe the right pull was resolved with the through shaft design of the Falcon nexus steering stabilizer.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone and hope this helps somebody!

Jeep Wrangler JL Steering issues- GONE! 20221223_161744


Jeep Wrangler JL Steering issues- GONE! 20221223_161158
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mrtm1970

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Just so I am reading your post right, did you did the Apex set-up with Falcon through shaft on top of Yeti Track bar and SS selector shaft brace and steering stabilizer?
 
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Just so I am reading your post right, did you did the Apex set-up with Falcon through shaft on top of Yeti Track bar and SS selector shaft brace and steering stabilizer?
No, I have steer smart's track bar and sector shaft brace, apex tierod and drag link, and falcon nexus 2.1 ss. I ditched the fox one cause the thru shaft didn't create a pull like I got with the fox. Sorry for the confusion.
 

omnitonic

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My steering is still great, feel wise, but it's clunky (as in noisy clunky from things thunking that probably shouldn't ought to thunk), and all the clunks are going to add up to death wobble eventually. Sorting this out is not my immediate priority, but I've been eyeing things for eventually. This seems like a robust setup to consider.

So I could do the Apex tie-rod and drag link, and then what? Just add a better stabilizer, and I'm golden? (I already have RK track bars that are beefy as hell, like 1.5" dia solid rods with whoopty thingum joints. I no longer remember what whoopty thingum joints are really called. That's depressing.)

How much of a bitch was it to install these parts? Wait. You got your Jeep back, so I guess you hired that out. I can't really blame you.
 

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Upnarms

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My steering is still great, feel wise, but it's clunky (as in noisy clunky from things thunking that probably shouldn't ought to thunk), and all the clunks are going to add up to death wobble eventually. Sorting this out is not my immediate priority, but I've been eyeing things for eventually. This seems like a robust setup to consider.

So I could do the Apex tie-rod and drag link, and then what? Just add a better stabilizer, and I'm golden? (I already have RK track bars that are beefy as hell, like 1.5" dia solid rods with whoopty thingum joints. I no longer remember what whoopty thingum joints are really called. That's depressing.)

How much of a bitch was it to install these parts? Wait. You got your Jeep back, so I guess you hired that out. I can't really blame you.
I've done tie rod and drag link before on my tj, real easy, I just had a shop do it since it was only 1.5hours labor.

What I realized is the through shaft stabilizers from either falcon or fox don't cause any pull like many standard ones.

Clunk could be a lot, but a new tierod and drag link can't hurt! Could be ball joints though.
 

omnitonic

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What I realized is the through shaft stabilizers from either falcon or fox don't cause any pull like many standard ones.

Clunk could be a lot, but a new tierod and drag link can't hurt! Could be ball joints though.
I don't have any problem with the factory stabilizer so far, except for the fact that it's extremely rusty, and I don't trust it. The other stuff, I think all the ball joints are more sloppy than they should be, and I just don't feel very good about any of the factory parts. I was happy to yank those track bars off. I will be happy to do the same to the tie rod and drag link.

That setup you did definitely looks like an interesting option. I'm trying to put this off until I recover from this year's horrible economy. If I had known what was coming, I probably would have left my Jeep stock, to be honest. Oh well.
 

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Just installed the RPM / Apex 2.5 ton stuff on my neighborā€™s JT. Wasnt hard at all. He also has the SS sector shaft brace and a Falcon through shaft stabilizer. He did have it professionally aligned afterwards. He is thrilled with the steering.

This week we are installing Rustyā€™s on my JL. I too have the SA sector shaft brace and run a MC stabilizer. My little 2 dr drives perfect right now. Hope I dont screw it up with heavy duty steering. šŸ˜‚

Jeep Wrangler JL Steering issues- GONE! CBE76D66-AB5F-494A-904C-7DA5B1A7140D
 
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Just installed the RPM / Apex 2.5 ton stuff on my neighborā€™s JT. Wasnt hard at all. He also has the SS sector shaft brace and a Falcon through shaft stabilizer. He did have it professionally aligned afterwards. He is thrilled with the steering.

This week we are installing Rustyā€™s on my JL. I too have the SA sector shaft brace and run a MC stabilizer. My little 2 dr drives perfect right now. Hope I dont screw it up with heavy duty steering. šŸ˜‚

Jeep Wrangler JL Steering issues- GONE! CBE76D66-AB5F-494A-904C-7DA5B1A7140D
Sucks we have to spend $2k to get decent steering, but I am glad to finally have the problems behind me and have peace of mind with some solid overbuilt components.
 

rkwfxd

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Sucks we have to spend $2k to get decent steering, but I am glad to finally have the problems behind me and have peace of mind with some solid overbuilt components.
I was lucky. My JL was great from day one. But I thought the SS brace was a good idea so I added it "just because." Boy did it tighten things up for me and made the jeep even more responsive. The HD stuff is basically insurance so that I don't break anything off road. Truth is, I could probably wheel my whole life on stock components and never have an issue. But I stress out over potential problems.
 

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Iā€™m chasing similar issues myself. At only 18k I had 3/4-1ā€ of free play in the steering wheel and it was the box. It is the steel one already, from factory that way. Dealership said it was ā€œnormalā€ but did the stabilizer tsb upgrade. No change. So I filled out the email/online survey when it came and triggered a shit stormšŸ¤£.
Two days later the service manager called, who is a Jeep guy himself but didnā€™t know Iā€™d been through the shop. He had me bring it in, gave me a new 1500 to drive and the shop supervisor looked it over, manager drove it and agreed with me. They adjusted the box off the record because they are not allowed to. It did help, for a few thousand kilometres. Then a few weeks ago I got my first hit of major shimmy after hitting a pot hole!!! The shimmy was accelerating as I hit the brakes. Next pot hole, same thing. So I took it in and they did a TSB on resetting the stabilizer to remove air from it. It actually was great for 1.5 weeks no extra bounce feed back from bumps, then it happened again tonightšŸ˜”. I already had a Falcon nexus EF 2.2 fast adjust stabilizer on order a few days ago because I donā€™t trust this stock one if it requires ā€œresettingā€ frequently . Thereā€™s a whole procedure of 25 full lock to lock with pauses at centre kind of thing. Go figure!.
I did already have the Steer Smarts Yeti HD track bar on it prior to all of this but put the OEM one back in prior to taking it in to avoid the dumb tech from saying ā€œafter market partsā€ like they did about my 33ā€ tires on stock wheels because my stock ones were 32ā€ šŸ™„ Itā€™s got a Dana 44 like the Rubicons do because itā€™s a diesel, so itā€™s got stock 33ā€™s like a RubiconšŸ™„.
They have a new steering box on order for it but itā€™s back ordered. Once thatā€™s done Iā€™ll be adding the SS sector/track bar brace and the Falcon stabilizer and go from there. Next Iā€™ll be putting in the SS tie rod and drag link. Then I think itā€™ll be Teraflex ball joints.
Like already said, shouldnā€™t have to do this stuff. No lift, 33ā€ tires on stock rims.
I stumbled upon the Metalcloak sector shaft brace yesterday online and it looks like a good one too that I might consider ordering. It doesnā€™t rely on two small bolts that are in full shear to keep it from moving like the Steer smarts and Synergy ones do.
 
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Upnarms

Upnarms

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I was lucky. My JL was great from day one. But I thought the SS brace was a good idea so I added it "just because." Boy did it tighten things up for me and made the jeep even more responsive. The HD stuff is basically insurance so that I don't break anything off road. Truth is, I could probably wheel my whole life on stock components and never have an issue. But I stress out over potential problems.
I wish that were the case, but my experience has been Jeep engineering the steering components to just barely the minimum specs to handle the stock set up, so the slightest thing (tires a little out of balance, bushings a little worn, etc) and BAM! DEATH WOBBLE and other lesser issues as mentioned before. I get it, they keep costs down, most people don't use the jeep in ways that would expose the vulnerabilities, etc. But it's only a matter of time before the weaknesses show up. My stock setup had the right pull issue from the start, but oh well, it wasn't significant. The more serious things started to surface at 20k miles with shimmy, and then dw. The track bar has always been under built, even when they improved it over the jk. It's a well known problem. I wouldn't even think of going to larger tires without upgrading it and the stock rubicon one was just barely sufficient for the 33s it comes with. The factory stabilizer is a joke and they had a TSB on changing those out too. Same with the original aluminum steering box just to add to my point.

It becomes very clear when you upgrade the steering components just how insufficient the factory parts were. Maybe some are lucky or don't off road enough to expose those weaknesses of the factory parts. I don't do any serious crawling, but do a considerable amount of driving on the trails. I probably am over building for what I do, but that's just fine with me.
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