Steering/front End Rebuild

Hi Guys—‘72 CJ5

My steering is completely trashed, and it is sketchy to drive. The lower joint, u-joint, and bushings and bearings in column all have a ton of play. I have all of the parts from Barney to completely rebuild the steering shaft down to the steering box.

As I was inspecting some other components, I found that the driver’s lower ball joint is bad, drivers’s wheel bearings are loud, passenger’s wheel bearing is loose, and tie rod ends don’t look great. The steering box seems ok from what I can tell with the bad steering shaft. It’s a reman so was replaced at some point. It has Cutlas lockouts which seem to be working fine. I also noticed that if I pull and push on the front u-joints at the steering knuckle the shaft I can get about 1/4 of movement in and out of the axle case on both passenger and driver side. I don’t know if this is normal.

U-joints seem ok, rusty but no play.

Brakes seem ok and have been refreshed, but looks like they reused the drums without turning or replacing.

It has a steering stabilizer that seems to be working well, but older.

I was planning on doing the steering shaft and the other steering components all at once to get some confidence back in the steering.

just got my sandblaster up and going so was going to be cleaning up and repainting as I go.

My question for those that have been down this road, where should I stop the “while I’m at it” vs doing it while I have it tore apart.

here is my list:
-Steering shaft repairs
-upper and lower Ball joints, both sides
-Wheel bearings
-tie rod ends
-axle seals
-brakes as needed, probably shoes and drums
-alignment I’m assuming when finished

anything else I should prepare for or watch for, or anything anyone wished they would have done when they got done?

 

Forgot to add—manual steering

 

Check your spring bushings. Major player in your steering repairs being a success.

 

As stated above, suspension components are a major contributor to loose or wandering steering, as well as bad box mounts.

Manual boxes can wear out over time. The first step is to insure the box is centered. Then with it connected, wiggle the wheel back and forth. Is there excess rotation of the worm gear? If so, you may be able to take some of the slop out using the adjusting screw.
Is there lateral movement of the sector? If so, you may have worn shaft bushings, which is common. You can replace the upper and lower bushing (or the lid if it is aluminum) for a fraction of the cost of a replacement.

The U joint movement can be remedied by installing a snap ring on the stub axle inside the hubs. While the movement won't hurt, the snap ring will keep the stub axle pulled up in the spindle seal, helping to keep dirt an water from entering.

Don't for get to pull the spindles and inspect/lube the spindle bearing.

Don't forget to check the axle U bolts as well. Loose bolts will allow the axle to walk around on the springs.

Unfortunately, mission creep is a inherent issue with older rigs. What starts out as a simple bearing pack can turn into a ball joint replacement, U joints, inner axle seals, etc.......
The question is how far do you want to go.

 

Adjusting the steering gear in the Jeep is tempting. The screw that tightens the gear mesh is right there on top of the gear. However, the TSM is very explicit that steering gear adjustment must follow a specific sequence, and that adjustment should be done on the bench. The '72 TSM warns about this, and the warning gets more emphatic as the years go on -



This is in every year AMC/Jeep TSM for both the manual and power steering gears.

Not meaning to be a jerk about this, but you see advice about adjusting the steering gears pretty often on these forums. Dunno, maybe these online advisors know more than the Jeep factory.

The TSMs get more detailed and helpful as the years go by. If you want to adjust or refresh your steering gear, suggest you look at one of the later books. Both the '79 and '82 TSMs are online free to read and download at the Tom Collins site. There's no difference in the steering gears between '72 and '79, but you can easily compare the '72 or '74 procedure to the later years to check that there are no significant differences. To me, it looks like more detail and more pictures in the later books.

 

Heed the warning from Tim on adjusting the steering box. If you don't know what you are doing 100%, you might as well throw it in the trash and order up a new one right now, it is not as simple as loosen a nut and turn a screw!

All the items you listed to do can be done with time and patience. You will definitely want to get the TSM. Getting the right parts will be a challenge, when I did mine i went through 3 or 4 different part numbers for seals from Napa etc. Take your old ones with you, get the numbers off them will help getting correct seals.

Ball Joints, Bearings were not a problem finding for me and the steering shaft parts are readily available or at least they were last year when I did mine. Make sure you check your axle u-joints and replace if any play or tight spots etc. A press will be your friend. Replace the inner axle seals as you will have the carrier and axles out anyway. Below is my parts list from Napa. Keep in mind that you should be able to get them from many other suppliers. I only went with Napa at the time because they were in stock and I had the differentials torn down sitting on saw horses. Also I assumed you have the Dana 30 front, Dana 44 rear?

 

Manual box adjustment is actually easy.

Simply put, insure the worm gear isn't moving in and out.
Insure there is no lateral movement of the pitman shaft (worn bushings).
Insure there is no vertical movement of the pitman shaft (wear on the head of the adjusting screw)
If the worm is tight, the bushings are good, with the pitman arm removed, and with the box centered, lightly run the adjusting screw down till there is SLIGHT resistance. Rotate the box through center. There should be a slight tight spot. Anything more than zero lash is too much and the screw needs to be loosened.

If you are curious how the box works, you can remove the lid bolts, and with the box centered, tap the shaft up and remove it (and the lid), allowing you to see how the mechanism works.