Flighty steering- 2010 rubicon unlimited

Bought a used 2010 rubicon unlimited roughly a year ago.

It is lifted what I believe is 3" with all rubicon express parts. Springs, shocks, adjustable track bar, adjustable upper control arms and fixed lower control arms. It is sitting on 285-70-17s with 1" wheel spacers. 30psi in all tires.

Had the death wobble shortly after purchase which I got under control with new teraflex ball joints and tightening up the track bar bolts.

From day one I have had flighty steering. Follows the ruts in the road, wanders, slow to turn in the corners, steering wheel doesn't return to center well etc. Kind of a handful to drive!

So far I have replaced the ball joints, front axle universals while I was there, tie rods and ends, drag link and the power steering box. Every suspension bolt on the jeep has been torqued. All the control arm and trac bar bushings are good.

Alignment has been done twice and the caster comes in at 4.1on both sides. As a next step I adjusted the caster with the upper control arms to set it at 6. Seems a bit better, no driveline vibration but still wanders and the steering wheel still doesn't return all the way to centre. Almost feels like body roll.

Do I dare go any more positive than 6 on the caster? Any other suggestions?

Have you tried removing the steering stabalizer?

Don't go over 6 on the caster unless you want to start breaking expensive shit. Do you have a drag link flip? Post up a pic of your front end showing all of the steering linkages. Ideally you want all of the links as close to parallel to each other and the ground as possible.

Check toe.


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There’s a black plastic collar where the steering shaft goes through the firewall. Check to see if the collar has slid forward (away from firewall) from engine bay side. You can push it back in and put a hose clamp to keep it from coming out again. This won’t help steering return to center but it might help with flighty feel. I agree with Ddays that you shouldn’t go more than 6 deg. on an oem axle.


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Also, tire pressure can be a factor as well. What PSI are you running?


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler

You’ve said alignment has been done twice, to what spec? Did they give you the print out? What was the toe set to.

What tires? Some tires have issues tracking and like to wander.




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Camber Is - 0.9 deg both sides
Toe is 0.11 deg both sides
Tire pressure is 30 all four corners

Which steering box did you install? PSC? Is there a dead spot before it feels flighty? I had the original big bore that had about a couple of inches of play and when it grabbed the Jeep wanted to dart in that direction. They swapped it for an PSC XDllr and it is very sensitive at highway speed but you get used to it. Could that be what you are feeling?


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler

Crich said:

Camber Is - 0.9 deg both sides
Toe is 0.11 deg both sides
Tire pressure is 30 all four corners

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I don’t think you have enough toe in. I had to google to figure out the degrees to tape measure conversion and if what I found is correct you should be around .16-.22*
This would make the most sense with steering wheel not centering and wanders bumpsteer imo.





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Alright after re reading that your toe might be correct because you said .11 per side which total is .22



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What brand & type of tires?


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