The XJ of 1000 Offroad Shops

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Jeep Cherokee Steering Repair - XJ

You know it’s going to be a fun project when the customer starts out by listing the offroad shops he has already visited, in an endless quest to fix the wandering steering on his Jeep Cherokee XJ.  That quest had totalled thousands of dollars in repairs, some needless, all with no results.

So I broke out the precision guided laser eyeballs, got my trust flashlight and a creeper, and did what I do best. I managed to a find a pretty decent list of things that the other folks missed, or in some cases made worst.

  • Bad sway bar bushings
  • Bad end link bushings
  • Bad drivers lower shock bushing
  • Bad out of the box (new) steering box showing .020 play on the sector shaft bearing, and on the input shaft bearing.
  • Even caught a few mistakes by another shop, like not tightening the oil pan bolts after doing the rear main… (that was messy)
  • But the kicker? The tires were 7psi low at every corner and riding on the outside of the tread.

It’s something an old electrician once told me.  Always check the fuse before you re-wire the whole stereo.  Anyway we adjusted what we could, which made a huge difference and now we are waiting on the UPS man to show up with the rest of the goodies, and I am sure it will all be right as rain.


“… the tire pressure alone made a big difference on the highway…  I actually got a little bored driving home which has never happened before.”  – Ben


Cheers and happy overlanding!

Remember to keep it OCD
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Skills

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Posted on

September 5, 2016