Steering
Sure I know you have seen a million posts about how Jeep steering is very lacking in the control aspect. This is not one of those posts! My steering issues stem from a worn out steering column and as you will find out, a previous owner tried to “fix”. I have that in quotes for a reason. Only after looking at a schematic and figuring out that someone added a washer under the spring that did little, if not cause more issues than before. Because of their bad modification I had to try to come up with something myself.
The bearings were in need of replacing as well. Once I installed the new bearings is when I figured out that they may not have needed replaced after all. Someone had done some work on the steering shaft to try and get the play out of it. Well they failed. The washer they added to the stack-up was under the spring that pushes on the inner bearing that creates the preload on the entire stack. After a couple of minutes I figured out that the washer was actually never making contact with the bearing race, so no preload. To be able to fix their mistake I had to come up with my own cobbled up mess. I don’t like to do this but in a pinch it will work, at least until I can locate another column. I made another washer with a larger I.D. (1.06″) to slide over the shaft and an O.D. of 1.437″ , but this left the spring with the ability to go through the washer too. So yet again no preload. I surmised that my only option was to use both washer. Mine to take up the room over the larger diameter of the shaft to sit on the inner race of the bearing, as well as the old washer to allow the spring a place to rest. This was the key to the successful fix of this issue. Once I got the steering wheel back on I had eliminated most, if not all, of the play in the steering wheel.
Yet another part made on the CNC Plasma. Simple, yet quick and effective.
