QuestionI have a 92 jeep Cherokee and I need some help if you have a few minutes. I noticed that there is some slack in the steering. Howstuffworks.com calls this slop i think. I have found a lot of info about a loose column, but it seems that is for the actual steering shaft being loose and tightening that. My issue is as follows, in case my terminology is incorrect; When I turn the wheel I have play in the wheel about three inches of turn before the column catches and it actually turns the wheels. I thought I read somewhere a while ago that there is a realatively easy fix without having to take it into a mechanic. is this true? Any ideas on how I can do this myself? I have done some mechanical repair in my past but I am no expert, hense why I am here. Any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks!
AnswerThis can be one of a number of things but the two that stick out are steering gear adjustment and just plain worn out steering components.
You should be able to diagnose this fairly easily with the help of a freind. Have them sit behind the wheel and turn the wheel back and forth. Find the point where you start moving the front wheels and then do not exert any extra force, in fact back off ever so slightly. What this is doing is moving the slop and not the wheels.
Next, lay under the car and look at the steering gear. It's mounted to the driver's frame rail and has an arm (pitman) attatched to it for the steering linkage. If your freind is still moving the wheel and you do not see any movement out of the pitman arm itself then your play is between the steering gear and the steering wheel. You may have play in both the steering before and the steering after the gear. If you've got no movement in the gear following the instructions below. If not scroll down a bit and read about the suspension.
The steering gear has an adjustment on it where a nut locks in place a threaded section. This threaded section I beleive has an alan head slot in it for the adjustment.
You put the alan wrench in the slot and hold it steady. If you break the nut loose and don't hold the alan wrench your starting point will be messed up. Holding the wrench, break loose the jam-nut. Turn the alan wrench to tighten the tolerance probably only 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn. It won't take much at all. Hold the alan wrench in place again and tighten the jam nut.
Drive the vehicle to see what this does for slop. DO NOT over-tighten this because it will prevent the steering from returning to center after making a turn, tighten up the steering causing wear on the gear and also make turning more difficult.
ABOUT THE SUSPENSION
You've got a number of ball-joints on this vehicle. There's upper and lower at the knuckles, there's outer tie rod end ball joints, there's also one or two more since it's a drag-link suspension. Bottom line is that at every point where the steering energy is passed on to a different component you have the chance of components being worn. You'll just have to check the ball joints (pulling/pushing and the steering back and forth) to see which ones have movement and which don't. If you have even so much as an 1/8" play in any component then it could lead to excessive steering play, unstable driving and even vehicle wander.
Doug
