Jeep hard to turn right after starting

Question

I have a 93 Jeep Cherokee, 6 cylinder, manual.

It starts with no problems. After starting, I can turn the wheel left with no issues, but it is hard to turn the wheel right. I have to give it a good pull and then it will turn. It does not matter if I turn left first or turn right first. The first time I turn the wheel right at all, it sticks. After the first turn right, I don't have any more problems with it. Or, at least I thought not...

My drive home is about 30 minutes on a straight highway. I don't turn the wheel more than lane changes during this time. The first time I really "turn" right is the exit ramp. As I started turning on the ramp tonight, the check engine light came on and the engine died. It was hard to continue the turn (which I would expect with no power steering). After I slowed down I started the Jeep again and everything was fine for the rest of the drive home. After restarting the check engine light went off.

The only other time the check engine light came on was last month. There were a couple of codes, but the only one I can remember was it saying the battery was recently disconnected (which it was not). The light went away so I assumed it was a one-time issue.

Could the difficulty on the first right turn after starting and the dying on the exit ramp tonight be related?

Answer 1

It sounds to me the steering gearbox is having an issue. If the valve which controls which way the fluid is flowing to provide the assist is sticking when you first turn right, then it may be hard to turn the wheel. Once you've turned it for the first time it might then become unstuck, allowing things to operate normally.

With turning off the highway and the engine stalling, it is conceivable, if the steering gearbox decided not to allow power fluid to go through the gearbox, but instead caused a feedback into the pump, it may be this caused your engine to stall. While this is conceivable, I find it highly unlikely.

I feel as though the two incidences are not related, but I wouldn't rule out the steering gearbox causing both. In this case, I'd see what could be done with the steering gearbox and then see if the stalling ever occurs again.