TJ Steering Upgrade

[Jeeperator]

Geeb. I dont think you are running your currie tierod fliped over on top of the knuckle on the drivers side with the insert I was talking about in my previouse post. If you were and didn't move your sway bar bracket it would hit on the drivers side. No more explaning I just post pics when I get a chance.

[Geebo]

Oh now I gotcha, no worries I,m not hitting anywhere..Thanks

[Tumbleweed13]

Jeeperator please clearify. In posts 2 and 9 you say xj tie rod. But in post 11 you say zj. Which is it?

I don't mean to be pushy, but you said you'd post some pics of your set up.

Thanks for all your help.

[aw12345]

He meant ZJ with a V8 engine, that is the one that uses a heavier draglink, then a currie tierod and a flip lit and you have a pretty durable steering setup, or by the whole currie setup and do the flipkit. I have been pretty happy with the currie setup, it will bend if you hit it on rocks hard enough, but it does not collapse like the factory setup.

[Jeeperator]

Sorry arts right! I meant zj. But he got the parts mixed up lol. The V8 zj TIEROD is what you want not the draglink , its way heavier duty then a stock tierod. It is a ~1inch solid bar instead of the skinny pos hollow tube tierod jeeps come from the factory with. Match that with a heavy duty currie DRAGLINK that you can get for about $200 and a $20 flip insert and thats about the best steering setup you can get for the money. Haven't been able to get the jeep out of the garage to take pics sorry.

[RAT]

Can't count the number of times I've landed solid on the Currie steering and walked away. Tough stuff. The only thing I do is replace tre's regularly (once a year or so). Not cuz they go bad; I just ain't gonna wait for them to. I abuse mine alot.

[Grizzly_99TJ]

In the past couple of weeks I've noticed that my steering has gotten sloppy and in the last few days I'm getting an occasional very bad wobble, so violent that feels like the whole front end is going to come apart (Death Wobble?). Also, when driving straight, the steering wheel is turned to the left at about 10 o'clock position and when i let go of the wheel the Jeep tracks straight and the steering does not move.

I've examined my tie rod, drag link, track bar, and steering stabilizer for any obvious signs of damage and found the following:

- TRE of track bar (Full Traction) is bent. Planning to replace with a Currie this weekend.
- Tie rod/drag link (HD Currie) have a lot of movement/rotation at the tie rod ends. How much play/rotation, if any, is acceptable? Should the TREs be replaced?
- Steering stabilizer is toast, leaking oil from both ends, so going to replace this weekend as well.

Any other recommendations on things to check/look for?

[OU812]

Check your tire balance and your control arm bushings. Your track bare is likely bent form the Death wobble. There are a lot of things that contribute to death wobble. Including bushings, alignment and tire balance. A new steering stabilizer will make it go away for a while but that just a band aid.

[RAT]

Check your tire balance and your control arm bushings. Your track bare is likely bent form the Death wobble. There are a lot of things that contribute to death wobble. Including bushings, alignment and tire balance. A new steering stabilizer will make it go away for a while but that just a band aid.

Scott is right about the wheel balance. Especially if you have Pro Comp Xterrains (ask me how I know). A cheap way to find out if the balance is a problem is to rotate the front tires to the rear and drive it. Wobble goes away it's the balance.

[Tumbleweed13]

Can't count the number of times I've landed solid on the Currie steering and walked away. Tough stuff. The only thing I do is replace tre's regularly (once a year or so). Not cuz they go bad; I just ain't gonna wait for them to. I abuse mine alot.

From everything I've heard the Currie is great. It's only the cost thats keeping me from already having it. I'm going with Jeeperator's idea cuz of cost mainly. But I like the otk part as well. More clearance is always good. I've seen enough posts from jeeperator that I think I can trust his mech knowledge. If it doesn't work out, then all I have to do is, get a new knuckle, the Currie tie rod, and I'm good to go. Plus I like having set ups that are a bit different then the norm. Gives my jeep character.

[Grizzly_99TJ]

Thanks for the tips and extra information. While I've got the front end up, I'll check out the CA bushings (uppers stock, lowers adjustable). I have BFG 33x12.5 ATs that have less then 2K miles, but will have the tires/wheels rebalanced.

I also called Currie about the amount of play in the TREs. They said that sometimes the TREs get over greased and the backing plate can get flattened out under the boot, so I'll be taking a look at those too.

[bails85]

there are alot of different steering setups that u can buy. currie rustys r.e ballistic etc. they are all the same and made out of the same material. currie in my opinion is a little high priced. they all are its a tube with a bung welded to it and they give you the options to run a heim or a tre. but yes the stock zj v8 tierod is the best way to go. it has all the necessary bends in it to keep from hitting and its solid. make of the after market vendors just build theirs from thick walled tube. but the only thing i dont get is what good does it do the flip the drivers tierod up over the knuckle when the passenger side is still under? just me.

[bails85]

if your going to do the high steer setup then u might as well just go with the wj knucle swap that way u can use the beefy dual caliper brakes too. not sure about tjs but alot of guys do it on xjs

[aw12345]

The currie stuff is not made of some tubes with some bungs welded on. The are solid chromemoly. Also on a TJ the tie rod runs from the drag link to the left knuckle so a flip kit does raise the tierod up a ways.
The drag link connects to the right knuckle.
Ray this shows you how a currie setup looks with a flip kit installed on the left.
It helps to visualize things and get a clear understanding of what is what, before you start commenting.

[Jeeperator]

I was going to do the wj knuckle setup on my tj but in the end I figure it wasnt worth it. The extra cost involved for the custom spacers, calipers, knuckles, custom drag link and tierod plus 3 flip inserts was going to cost way more than a heavy duty currie draglink fliped v8 tierod combo. Not to mention adding cost of a raised track bar mount for correct geometry. My (non anti lock) brakes seem to work just fine with 35" tires so why upgrade. In the end the track bar ends up being to short with the new mount to boot. OH yea! it wont give as much clearence as whats showed in Arts pic above.
Obviously with currect-link set up you cant flip the passenger side otk but looking at Arts pics why would you need to? the clearence is where it needs to be. Even if you figured out a way to flip that side you end up screwing up the draglink trackbar geometry again.

This pic is probably the cheapest crossover steering to be had for a tj or an xj its a rugged ridge setup. It is probably stronger than a stock setup but I still hit the damm tierod on the rocks and bent it more than once. Since the tierod mounts under the knuckle it sits even lower than a stock steering setup. The dreaded tierod roll and dead spot in the steering really got old over time also. If you look and compare the clearence difference between this pic and arts there is a ~2 inch difference in the center, Arts being the one with more ground clearence. Pics are really misleading because of the angle of the shots but there is definatly a difference. Arts shooting down at his setup and I am shooting up at mine so it hard to see the 2inches but its there.


At first I thought the currie setup was also too pricey($449msrp)and wanted to save some coin doing the rugged ridge setup. I regret getting it(rugged ridge) now and that money could of been saved for better things. Live and learn. To this day I have yet to hit any rocks with the currie setup which is a big plus. My total investment for the currie draglink fliped zj tierod setup was ~$200 for just the draglink~$20 for the good zj tierod at pnp. Art gave me the insert but normally they cost ~$20 and I robed the steering damper mount from the rugged ridge kit but I believe they are ~$25. So with a total investment of ~$265 I now have a good Strong SOLID NOT TUBE steering setup that has proper geometry, more ground clearence than most and no more tierod roll and dead spots in my steering. I also believe that is pretty comparably priced with most cross over steering setups out there. I figure you can find a complete currie setup for about $400 somewhere. So I saved ~ $135 going the fliped v8 zj tierod route and it is a direct bolt on.