TJ Steering Upgrade

[Tumbleweed13]

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.

Art is your set up all Currie, or is that a zj tie rod?

When I get the zj tie rod from the junkyard, if (most likely) the tre is bad. Do I get a reg zj tre or is there an upgraded tre, and is it nessesary?

Thanks for all the knowledge. Your experiance, is my savings. :thumbs_up

[aw12345]

Mine is all Currie and has been on there for over 3 years with lots of trail abuse.
To check the Tierod ends if you can spin the studs (tapered end) easily then its shot.
I would just get the stock replacement TRE

[Jeeperator]

Thing is the main part of the tierod has the tre built in to the rod. Make sure you get a tight one. Another nice thing is most the parts can be had at the local napa or parts store.

[bails85]

ok good info here. i didnt realize currie made the dl in solid cromoly. art i like that steering setup. looks strong. i just thought that the proper way to do it would be to flip the dl and the tierod otk. but as shown in ur pics no need to. i was suggesting the wj swap because in older xj the brake systems with big tires suck ass. but hey the tj are newers than xjs so maybe the brake systems work better. im going to look into this currie setup.

[2blk2drs]

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.

That is an inverted T, not a crossover setup.

[Jeeperator]

Thats right! I stand corrected. Anyway, It was not a very good setup. Maybe if it was OTK it would of worked better.

[mrblaine]

Thats right! I stand corrected. Anyway, It was not a very good setup. Maybe if it was OTK it would of worked better.

OTK doesn't change the reason it rolls the tie rod that causes wandering and vague steering. The reason is where the draglink attaches. Because of that, it has to roll the tie rod to the limit of it's rotation before it imparts steering input to the knuckle.

You can bandaid it with a spacer under the body of the TRE, but it's still a bandaid.

[mrblaine]

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.

If you want an easy way to do the flip, I did it this way.

The brackets weld to the inner C on both sides and make it very simple.



Both tires are off the ground-

[Jeeperator]

You can bandaid it with a spacer under the body of the TRE, but it's still a bandaid.

As far as the spacers they really didn't work that well for me. Still had a bad dead spot and lots of tr roll. Those are some nice brackets but with the double fliped v8 xj tierod requires no welding.

[mrblaine]

As far as the spacers they really didn't work that well for me. Still had a bad dead spot and lots of tr roll. Those are some nice brackets but with the double fliped v8 xj tierod requires no welding.

Oh trust me, I'm no fan of the inverted Tee steering in the least. It's just that the shops that sell it and tout it as the greatest thing since sliced bread tend to hop into steering threads with the spacer solution.

No welding on a Jeep is almost sacrilegious, no?

What do you mean by double flipped?

[Jeeperator]

Fliped otk on drivers side and tierod fliped over from the way it was installed on a xj. The factory bends seem to work just right. That new heat treated chromoly tierod might just be worth the extra welding though.

[Tumbleweed13]

Still had a bad dead spot and lots of tr roll. Those are some nice brackets but with the double fliped v8 xj tierod requires no welding.

Are you say'n that If I use your currie/v8 zj set up, I'm gonna have a dead spot and tr roll?:confused:

[aw12345]

Nope that is not what Beau is saying.
he had a different setup before Th ZJ Currie setup that was a poor excuse for a steering setup, which is why he replaced it.
Will make it simple for ya
Not so good setup



Good setup



See the difference?

The not so good setup will roll the tierod because of the force the draglink puts on it. This causes it to roll a bit which causes a dead spot or a delay in your steering

[alittleoff]

Thanks Art, those pics describe exactly what mine is doing. Time to put it on the to-do list.

Steve

[Tumbleweed13]

Thing is the main part of the tierod has the tre built in to the rod. Make sure you get a tight one. Another nice thing is most the parts can be had at the local napa or parts store.

So if the built-in tre is shot, then the whole tie rod is no good? Or can you rebuild the tre?

Fliped otk on drivers side and tierod fliped over from the way it was installed on a xj.

Are you say'n that the passenger end is bolted on to the front side of the drag link(closer to the front bumper),too? Or are to say'n to make the drivers end the passenger end, so the built-in tre is at the knuckle?

One more thing, If I only replace the tie rod with the zj unit, and leave the stock tj drag link, am I asking for trouble in the future?

I don't me to make this complicated, I just want to get it right the first time.