How loose is your steering??

[Ben KVX]

Just curious, how much free play do you have in your steering wheel? Say traveling down the freeway how much side to side freeplay do you have, mine might be normal just feels a little looser than most vehicles. If so, is there an adjustment? Thanks.

[creeg]

Mine is pretty tight. I dont offroad, so it gets a lot of street action whcih Im sure keeps it pretty tight.

[blacksambo]

This one is simple; the VX shop mannual allows .30 to 1.1 inches of steering-wheel free play. Anywhere in that range is okay. If you don't like yours, the adjustment is also simple. Simply release the outer nut on the top of the steering box and tighten down the inner screw a tad. Simple enough?

[Ldub]

Look here... http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...03&postcount=4

Just gotta LVE that good ol' search function...

[nfpgasmask]

Funny you mention this because I think my steering has gotten a little loose over the years. When I went to visit my mom in FL last month, I drove her 96 Trooper around for a bit. MAN that was loose.

Bart

[Ldub]

i don't see the flat head screws and the bolt? where is it exactly, cuz can't find it.

Tell ya what...you become a site supporter, & I'll go outside tomorrow & take pics in the freezin' az cold to help you...

[crotchrocket]

Since replacing my upper ball joints i have realised my steering is slack too!!! But the play looks to me to be coming from the joint between the steering shaft from the steering box and the shaft to the wheels. I think thats a ball joint too ??

[tom4bren]

In the shop manual available in the Download Section, the process for adjusting steering play is on page 2A-13 (it's page 184 of the pdf file). The pic on page 2A-20 (pdf page 191) helps too.

Crotchrocket - look on page 2A-21 (pdf page 192). Can you tell if that universal is still tight? What about the splined shaft?

[crotchrocket]

Thanks tom, I think it’s the joint between the pitman arm and the centre track rod assembly (from what I remember it’s a ball joint but cant see it on the manual). Im in my office so will take a look tomorrow when its light

[tom4bren]

I hope that it's not the ball joint on the center link. I was told that the ball joint is not available by itself, you have to replace the centerlink.

BTW, that ball joint is a beeeotch to break loose. I worked at it for hours when I was installing my diff drops. When working on CSTYLES, we messed his up so bad, he had to replace the centerlink.

If you get yours apart, make sure you put 'anti-sieze' on it when you reinstall.

[crotchrocket]

will look onto it!! Thanks bud, if its at all messed up i'll get some second hand parts of a newer frontera B

[nemo]

I looked at mine late yesterday and talk about hard to get at there is not much room to use any wrench and too tight for a rachet. I went to get my liquid wrench to see if that will help loosen it up but could not find it so I going to get a can today. It looks like it would be really easy if you remove the fan shroud, does anyone know if that is true?

[SilverBullet75]

I just did this adjustment this weekend... Holy cow what a difference!

No need to remove the fan shroud. I doubled-up (end to end) two combination wrenches to make a long, almost 2 ft long box wrench. Worked like a charm. I only had to turn the center screw from about 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock until it stopped, then re-tightened the lock-nut.

VERY happy with the result of this.

Hey Jim (99VC), you may want to do this on yours. I remember it had a little slop when I owned it. VERY easy adjustment. Took about 2 minutes... most of which was getting the tools out of the box.
---JIM---

[handeeman]

I've got almost no (or very little) slack in mine. Besides T4B won't cut me any.

[tom4bren]

Must be the wide bucket ... provides a stable platform.