Mike Romain

A friend came over with a really leaky steering box on a 98 Jeep TJ. He
had the wrong fluid put in it plus the last shop to change the seal
forgot to put the dust seal in on top of the oil seal on the column part
and the adjustment plug was packed with mud.

Sooo....

He went to a steering shop and they sold him the seals and gave him an
'old style' one piece bearing and adjustment plug saying these were
'way' better and wouldn't leak.. His is a two piece unit.

I helped take his apart and then figure the seals are just plain wrong
for what I have in my hands so call the shop and find out the above info
about the part swap.

Hmm..... Ok..... I 'sure' wasn't planning on mixing and matching parts
today, but hey he brought lots of beer....

So I put the seal and dust cover in the one piece part and we install
it. It won't tighten down near enough to have the stub shaft tight with
the wrench, had 45 deg finger loose rotation, so I back it off and
tighten and repeat a few times then repeat using a center punch and
hammer to turn it and get it to the point of bending the punch. I am
thinking I am feeling threads mashing....

I got it to about 10 degrees of finger loose rotation or about 4" of
free play in the steering wheel. Not acceptable. It had no play with
the original part.

This is the worm thrust bearing preload and the 10 degrees of rotation
also means 1/8" in and out movement on the stub shaft.

I was reading the directions Bill sent me and it mentions setting the
adjuster tight by bottoming it and backing it off slightly, then doing
the pitman or over center adjuster.

Will that pitman center adjustment affect the worm gear end play or do
we just plain have the wrong part?

Any help would be appreciated. I didn't want to start messing with
rotational torque if I have the wrong part in there.

Oh, it doesn't leak... ;-)

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's