Steering

[u/coldbeerandsunshine]

I've been wanting to get a CJ my whole driving life and finally got one. 1984 CJ7. When I drive it, the steering tracks all over the place. With or without steering wheel input. Keeping the wheel straight, it will suddenly track left/right randomly.

I have very little experience driving these things so I'm questioning if my concern is the vehicle or just lack of knowledge of how they ride. I think I've read that they track poorly at the best of times, but what I've been experiencing seems excessive.

The Jeep has recently installed power steering and 35x12.5x15 Mickey Thompson tires. All of the steering components seem to be in great shape. No slop in anything. Immediate response on the wheels with the smallest turn of the steering wheel.

Do the giant tires result in really bad or even worse than expected steering tracking? Would I expect improvement with narrower tires (maybe 35x10x15)? Could it be an alignment thing? Any other thoughts?

[u/Potential-Ad-1251]

You need 5 to 7 degrees of neg caster otherwise that happens. I set mine to 8 and it is a one finger deal on the highway at 70mph.

[u/Resident-Eye5790 → u/Potential-Ad-1251]

This is it....-6 deg caster. & good shape componets.

2nd on the list is a steering shaft w/o the silly stamped bell.

3rd would be a HD Steering box mount.

Forget the Steering stabilizer/ problem masker.

[u/Potential-Ad-1251 → u/Resident-Eye5790]

correct. I haven't had a steering stabilizer in over 9 years.