STEER YOU RIGHT

A PSC Motorsports Big Bore XD steering box solved our Jeep’s steering woes

- Harry Wagner

These days, 40-inch tires seem like the norm, and it isn’t uncommon for people to install hydraulic-assist steering on their street-driven 4x4s (or full hydraulic on trail-only-buggies). Our ’06 LJ has 37-inch tires and the factory steering system definitely didn’t like to turn them when they were aired down on the trail. We assumed that we needed hydraulic-assist steering, but after talking to Tom Allen at PSC Motorsports he explained that might not be the case. PSC Motorsports offers a whole host of options for ’87-current Jeep Wranglers.

Given our tire size and the amount of road miles we drive, Allen recommended the company’s Big Bore XD replacement steering box. The Big Bore box is a bolt-on upgrade for ’03-’06 Wranglers that replaces the factory ZF steering box. A German steering box on a Jeep? You may recall that in 2003, Mercedes-Benz purchased Chrysler, and at that time they switched steering box suppliers from Delphi to ZF. “These are the same basic boxes that Mercedes put on passenger cars in the ’80s,” Allen revealed. So, PSC offers an all-new 8200 Series box with a larger-diameter piston to increase torque output and a ported internal valve skirt and custom-machined torsion bar.