Body lift removal + 4° caster = heeeavy steering
Tremelune
Jeeper
I have an '83 CJ7 I've been trying to correct the steering on, and I've hit a snag...After removing a 2" body lift and adding 4° caster shims (for a total of 6.5°), my steering went from very light to very heavy. I'm aware that increasing caster makes steering more difficult, but I think something just isn't right.
The steering is just about as heavy at 40mph as 4mph. As I turn the wheel through a tight turn, I can feel stiff "spots" that come and go as the wheel turns. It feels like the gears or joints are too "tight" in spots. A weird thing is the the "slop" is gone now—there used to be quite a bit of play when changing from left to right, but that's gone now. The steering wheel does not return to center when released—indeed, it stays fast where it is.
It's almost as if lowering the body has jammed the steering column hard into the steering box. My understanding is that this column is telescopic, though, and should have just squished itself in length as the car was lowered. It looks like the previous owner knocked out the plastic pin for the column when installing the body lift, but who knows, really.
Maybe I torqued the tub in some way when tightening down the body mount bolts? They don't all line up perfectly, and I didn't use shims/spacers, though there was maybe a quarter inch of them on the driver's side when I removed the lift (that I attributed to the previous owner trying to compensate for lean due to worn springs).
Other pertinents: It has 33"x12.5" mud tires, a 2.5" Rancho spring lift, and wheels of unknown backspacing (thought I believe they stick out further than stock. Even with those monsters, the steering was very light before the change. My toe-out is out of spec, but I don't believe it would cause this. There is a Rancho steering stabilizer that may have shifted slightly while I was getting the shims installed.
It's like steering is overly tight, as opposed to overly heavy. It's just weird. Any ideas on what I can inspect or isolate?
The steering is just about as heavy at 40mph as 4mph. As I turn the wheel through a tight turn, I can feel stiff "spots" that come and go as the wheel turns. It feels like the gears or joints are too "tight" in spots. A weird thing is the the "slop" is gone now—there used to be quite a bit of play when changing from left to right, but that's gone now. The steering wheel does not return to center when released—indeed, it stays fast where it is.
It's almost as if lowering the body has jammed the steering column hard into the steering box. My understanding is that this column is telescopic, though, and should have just squished itself in length as the car was lowered. It looks like the previous owner knocked out the plastic pin for the column when installing the body lift, but who knows, really.
Maybe I torqued the tub in some way when tightening down the body mount bolts? They don't all line up perfectly, and I didn't use shims/spacers, though there was maybe a quarter inch of them on the driver's side when I removed the lift (that I attributed to the previous owner trying to compensate for lean due to worn springs).
Other pertinents: It has 33"x12.5" mud tires, a 2.5" Rancho spring lift, and wheels of unknown backspacing (thought I believe they stick out further than stock. Even with those monsters, the steering was very light before the change. My toe-out is out of spec, but I don't believe it would cause this. There is a Rancho steering stabilizer that may have shifted slightly while I was getting the shims installed.
It's like steering is overly tight, as opposed to overly heavy. It's just weird. Any ideas on what I can inspect or isolate?
