Dark_Passenger
New Member
Hello Everyone,
For the past 48 hours I have been scouring every jeep forum I can find, trying to figure what is going on with my steering. It seems folks have had similar issues but I cannot find a situation that exactly replicates what I am experiencing. The symptoms came on suddenly. I drove the car to the store and came home in the morning, no knock. I went out to drive to work about an hour later, the steering was knocking. I hit no significant bumps or pot holes that would have caused damage.
When I first got my KK, I noticed that when making right turns it would pop when I hit a bump. I've had a few dodge/chrysler vehicles and had to replace sway bar bushings on every single one, so I assumed this was the issue. It never popped any other time though, only when turning right at low speed and hitting bumps.
However, now it pops/clunks when parked (engine off) just by wiggling the steering wheel back and forth. I crawled underneath and had my wife wiggle the wheel
happy175 while I inspected everything. The outer tie rod ends have no play, LBJ is solid, sway bar and links don't budge, and the rack/pinion bushings look brand new. The knock/pop seems to be isolated to the Driver's side only. I noticed the zip tie on the boot that covers the inner tie rod end on the driver's side was loose. I cut it off and slid the boot outboard towards the tire in order to expose the inner tierod. I then had my wife wiggle the steering again and I believe to have isolated the pop/clunk to the actual rack itself. I can see forward/aft play in the rack when wiggling the steering wheel. Also, there was hardly any grease on the rack so I will lube that up nice and good.
I may have just found my answer while writing this post haha. I will mess around with the yoke adjustment to see if that improves the knock/pop. After thinking about how to describe the issue, it hit me that it looks like the rack has room for play within the housing, so I hope it is as simple as a yoke adjustment.
If anyone else has any other suggestions, feel free to let me know. I will report back on the outcome of adjusting the yoke in case anyone else is having this issue.
For the past 48 hours I have been scouring every jeep forum I can find, trying to figure what is going on with my steering. It seems folks have had similar issues but I cannot find a situation that exactly replicates what I am experiencing. The symptoms came on suddenly. I drove the car to the store and came home in the morning, no knock. I went out to drive to work about an hour later, the steering was knocking. I hit no significant bumps or pot holes that would have caused damage.
When I first got my KK, I noticed that when making right turns it would pop when I hit a bump. I've had a few dodge/chrysler vehicles and had to replace sway bar bushings on every single one, so I assumed this was the issue. It never popped any other time though, only when turning right at low speed and hitting bumps.
However, now it pops/clunks when parked (engine off) just by wiggling the steering wheel back and forth. I crawled underneath and had my wife wiggle the wheel
happy175 while I inspected everything. The outer tie rod ends have no play, LBJ is solid, sway bar and links don't budge, and the rack/pinion bushings look brand new. The knock/pop seems to be isolated to the Driver's side only. I noticed the zip tie on the boot that covers the inner tie rod end on the driver's side was loose. I cut it off and slid the boot outboard towards the tire in order to expose the inner tierod. I then had my wife wiggle the steering again and I believe to have isolated the pop/clunk to the actual rack itself. I can see forward/aft play in the rack when wiggling the steering wheel. Also, there was hardly any grease on the rack so I will lube that up nice and good.I may have just found my answer while writing this post haha. I will mess around with the yoke adjustment to see if that improves the knock/pop. After thinking about how to describe the issue, it hit me that it looks like the rack has room for play within the housing, so I hope it is as simple as a yoke adjustment.
If anyone else has any other suggestions, feel free to let me know. I will report back on the outcome of adjusting the yoke in case anyone else is having this issue.
