Delayed Steering Response

[RamJetFSJ]

I had a similar issue with my 76 Wagoneer. I would be going into a turn at freeway speeds, roll the wheel about 1/8th of a turn and it felt like there was a delay of 1-2 seconds before the steering responded. Often, if the turn was banked a little bit the jeep would then oversteer causing me to countersteer. I described it as the jeep driving like it had a hinge in the middle.

Thats EXACTLY what mines doing! Adding re-torque Ubolts to the list!

[RamJetFSJ]

Well, it wasn't low tire pressure, loose u-bolts, loose spring bolts, or loose steering box bolts (all of which where fixed). Got a little more wheel time, and really think it's ball joint or u-joint related, but I got some shorter shackles to try before dropping it off at the 4x4 shop for a pricey axle rebuild...

[Tatsadasayago]

If you raise the tire(s) off the ground about an inch you can use a pry bar to move it and check for ball join play. Grabbing the tire from two sides and moving it up,down, left and right will also tell you if your wheel bearings and tie-rod ends are loose. With the tires on the ground, having another person turn the wheel left and right while you watch the components will often show you what is moving around.

[RamJetFSJ]

Well, Swapping back to the stock front shackles made a big difference, and I think its livable now, although it still doesnt have very much return to center, even with the massive caster I now have (left the front wedges in that I put in when I did the lift shackles), so I think it either needs a better alignment, or new ball joints.

But, in the process of testing said change, I went full throttle on the freeway, and blew a hole in the headers... Mind you these are a custom set I made by chopping up some other headers, so theres no easy way to change them. I guess Ill weld a patch on for now, with the hope to one day switch them to Rams Horn manifolds, which will require a whole new Y-pipe... Its always something.

[RamJetFSJ]

Sorry to bring up an ancient tread of mine, but thought I better update it for others benefits...

The biggest change to this issue was fresh ball joints. The ones on there were not worn out, but were really stiff (which added to the lack of return to center). The removal of the lift shackles also made a huge difference.

[Stuka]

Yeah, lift shackles really mess with caster angle.

Did you end up making new headers?

[RamJetFSJ]

I corrected the caster angle and they still weren’t great, but that could have been because of the stiff ball joints. I haven’t tried them again since changing the ball joints.

As gas as the headers go, No, I patched them, and they have been fine. There was a thin spot where I ground down the weld too far. I plan to replace them with 2.5” corvette style rams horn manifolds if the ever rust out/start leaking.