streering box is fubar anyone help

[soldaten22]

just got a sj after years of willys jeeps and found the streering box is gone i cant take up any more play and the wheels fish tail every thing else tho looks good .so is there somewhere i can get a new or used box or any help with restoring my old one cheers

[ScottieJ]

If its fully adjusted that's the end of its life I'm afraid. I have a few lying around bit I think most of them need new seals as they were leaking. I'm up the shop tomorrow so ill pull them all out and have a look for you.

[soldaten22]

cheers for that that would be good so are the seals easy to get hold of then as i cant seem to find many parts for the sj s

[ScottieJ]

A lot of the seals are generic standard sizes, if not they are probably available from suzuki. Ill have a look into it for you when I'm at work tomorrow as I could probably do with some seals myself

[soldaten22]

ok cheers for that scottie that would be a big help

[andyrew]

where abouts are you ? i have a steering box avalible as im going PAS with mine.

[soldaten22]

yeah is that a better change .im near cirencester glos

[dan_2k_uk]

to another local!

I've got one in Swindon but in a similar state to Scotties.

I just pumped it full of grease when the seals went as it cant get back out

Probably not the best fix but it got me by for a few years until I converted to PAS.

If you have no joy with Scottie you are welcome to it for free but its probably not a lot better that your current one by the sounds of it.

Dan

[soldaten22]

hi its good to now theres anther local one around .ok yeah thats not a bad idea so that toke all the problems away then. ok cheers for that dan thats very good of you i would like to get it sorted soon .i dunno if its the same really as with mine but ill tell with anther one on there and hope it solves it

[ScottieJ]

I'm not actually that far from you either

When you say the wheels fish tail what do you mean?

Are you getting the infamous 'death wobble'? I.e. a violent steering wheel judder at speeds anywhere between 30-50?

Things to check are.

U-bolts.......make sure they are torqued up

U-joints and Rag joint on steering column

Wheel bearings..........check for play etc.

Kingpin bearings And Knuckle seals and felts........ These need to be adjusted correctly and the seals and felts in good condition to give a certain amount of resistance in the steering, to check this you need to remove wheels and steering links and use a spring scale.

Balljoints on steering links......check for play

Wheel balance

Steering box........ These should be adjusted so that it takes a certain amount of torque to move the pitman arm, again using a spring scale

Caster angle.......do you have any suspension mods that could have knocked this out of spec i.e. llift shackles or a spring over axle conversion?

When I'm at work tomorrow ill post up more details from the service manual