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Short Cuts
By: Del Taylor - 4/2000
Tires at full-lock
Location of the steering stop bolt
photo by Terry L. Howe
Adjusting the stop
At play with the new meats
Ah!, you just bought those gnarly, wide meats, and you speed down to the local
tire shop to have them mounted and balanced. The tire shop slaps them on and
backs out your jeep, the drool starts dripping unchecked down your chin. You
know now that the obstacle that stopped you last time, has finally met it's
match! You fire up your jeep and pull out of the parking lot,heading towards
the nearest trail, only to hear ... thump,thump,Thump!! Yep, that's those
mondo lugs slapping the leaf springs.
What to do? Well, if your made out of money, you could purchase new wheels with
a more negative off-set and backspacing. Another option would be spacers, but
they have a questionable reliability about them. The last option, the one
discussed in this article, is to adjust your steering stops.
Pull your vehicle on to a flat surface and turn your wheels to full-lock. You
then need to locate the tack-welded bolt on your knuckle, this will be your
steering stop. To determine how much the bolt is backed out all depends on how
much your tire is 'touching' the spring pack. There's probably some mathematic
equation to determine this, I used the tried and true method of guestimation.
To remove the bolt, you could torch or Dremel off the tack-weld,
(NOTE: Do not attempt to force the bolt loose from the tack-weld!!) or an
easier solution, by Paul Nasvik, is to remove the entire assembly and put a
washer behind the nut. This what I did to the passenger side and it works
great. The driver side, received a longer replacement bolt for the one I
sheared off to ensure proper tire clearance.
Tighten everything back, pull your vehicle out in the driveway and do some
slow, full-turning, forward and reverse to ensure proper tire clearance.
With your steering stops adjusted, it's now time to go and try them
out.... the fun way!!!
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