Steering box woes

TBird

TBird

New member
Hey all thought I'd share a bit about what's going on with my jeep. A couple of weeks ago I noticed power steering fluid all over the top of the diff and steering linkage and dripping off the pitman arm. Thought oh great its leaking.
Well I took it into the dealership as it still has its factory Mopar warranty and had my buddy come out and look at it. He took down the Vin and said the box needed to be serviced or replaced in this case (2010) and would talk to his boss about it. Well right away said they won't touch it because it has a drop pitman arm but only a 4 inch lift. Had it professionally installed and aligned elsewhere because of deals I get elsewhere.

Well fast forward a couple days and I finally got a chance to talk to the gm about it. He thought it was odd as they've never had one come back for it and have fitted 15+ wranglers with 35's off the floor.

Now within the last week ive discovered horizontal sector shaft play along with the leak (even with Lucas stop leak) and the steering has become very sloppy and highway travel becomes an ass clenching drive as its now unpredictable to handle.

Finally went back in today and the gm didnt want me driving it so I have an 09 journey r/t as a temp and they're gonna do what they can first thing tomorrow. I'm really hoping they fix it as they didnt install the lift BUT it was professionally done and Mopar does make a dropped pitman arm and they usually cover 4" lifts. So here's to spending 200 and not like a grand or more :/ Can't believe how fast it got sloppy. I have the synergy brace kit waiting so it won't happen again as ive been telling them. Damn jeeps.

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Hate to say it but, the brace you just paid for won't do squat to fix your problem. Most of the dropped pitman arms out there are all made by the same manufacturer and most have sloppy tolerances in the splines. How do I know, I've run several on my Jeep and all with the same problem. I know of many others who've had this problem too and even one who had a brace. They only way I was able to fix it was by installing a make shift washer that allowed the nut to push the arm further up the sector shaft. As far as the leak goes, that was probably cause by the sloppy fit. If you can fix that, that'll be all you need to do. Or, a better solution would be to install a factory pitman arm and install a drag link flip/track bar relocation kit. If it were me, I would return your brace and do this instead. But, that's just me.
 
Well maybe I'll do both haha if it helps me sleep at night then its going on but I can certainly figure something out. I have the 4" rough country lift and it includes a trak bar drop bracket, which is a raised bracket off the axle end. And a drop pitman arm. Should I put the stock pitman arm back on and get the synergy high steer drag link since I already have a trak bar bracket? I don't want this happening again so I wanna know what the best bet is.

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TBird said:
Well maybe I'll do both haha if it helps me sleep at night then its going on but I can certainly figure something out. I have the 4" rough country lift and it includes a trak bar drop bracket, which is a raised bracket off the axle end. And a drop pitman arm. Should I put the stock pitman arm back on and get the synergy high steer drag link since I already have a trak bar bracket? I don't want this happening again so I wanna know what the best bet is.

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Click to expand...

I could be wrong but the RC track bar bracket moves the track bar up and over to the right a bit, but not up as high as it needs to be for using a drag link flip kit.
 
TBird said:
Well maybe I'll do both haha if it helps me sleep at night then its going on but I can certainly figure something out. I have the 4" rough country lift and it includes a trak bar drop bracket, which is a raised bracket off the axle end. And a drop pitman arm. Should I put the stock pitman arm back on and get the synergy high steer drag link since I already have a trak bar bracket? I don't want this happening again so I wanna know what the best bet is.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using WAYALIFE mobile app
Click to expand...

I have seen the RC track bar bracket tear off the factory mount. I personally would get rid of it and install something like an EVO drag link flip/track bar relocation bracket. I would also take the extra step to have the bracket welded in place so that you don't have to check it's bolts as a part of routine maintenance. You can keep your track bar bracket and just reinstall your factory pitman arm and add a drag link flip but, there is a possibility that it may not be a good match. You have to remember that your track bar relocation bracket was made for your dropped pitman arm. If the track bar relocation bracket you have is too tall or too short, your track bar and drag link will not sit parallel to each other and that will give you handling issues.
 
Good point. It doesn't raise it as much as the evo kit does. That will be my next investment then. Just gotta track down a stock pitman arm (shouldn't be hard) and get everything swapped out and installed. Every day I'm learning something new about these monsters but I still love them all the same :) Appreciate your expertise

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As an update the jeep IS getting a new warranty steering box and should be done early Thursday. Hooray. Gonna order that evo kit asap though. Don't need this one breaking right away too. I don't have that many horseshoes :p

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I'm in Canada. Unable to order from ORE as easily as I'd like. Any other similar options on the quadratec or northridge sites? Northridge is only 4 hours away so I can get them to do free overnight through my company.

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Oh well it would appear so haha I tend to have bad luck navigating their site. The shop brands button looks like its my new best friend though haha thanks a lot
 
Done and done. New box is done but only this time. They won't warranty it next time or any other steering/suspension issue. But its fixed and is tighter than I bought it. EVO drag link flip kit is ordered so just gotta hunt down a stock pitman arm and when the kit comes on it all goes
 
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