95 4x4 poor steering

[jimk]

I have a 95 4x4 that is as far as I can tell not wore out. The truck is has never been used hard on rough roads. . I installed a brace from Piers to stabilize the box. That seems to help. Now I am wondering if I can turn the front axle assemble to get max positive caster. I have thought that might help. Can I do so and not have to set the tow in. The shocks and steering stabilizer are original. Which units to buy. Rancho steering stabilizer has a life time warranty. I like life time warranty.

What do you recommend? thanks for any advice Jimk

 

[Joe G.]

Check for slack in the track bar.

 

[Extreme1]

After you replace the trac bar, have a front end shop check the ball joints for clearance. Road roughness dosn't have as big an effect on steering parts as miles.



The caster is controlled by the upper ball joint inserts. They are changed to adjust the castor to specification. Over on Dave Frittz's website is a good set of alignment specs. I've used them and highly recommend them however you must be sure the shop that does the work gets the specs you want. A before and after print out of the specs should do.

 

[jimk]

track bar

I have checked the track bar and it is tight. I could not feel any abnormal slack. Is there any other way to check it. I did check the fritz page as suggested. That is the way I use to align truck when I was a mechanic for GM many years ago. I like to have lot of positive caster. A half of degree more on the right than left. That is for the crown on the road or convex. Generally 0 camber is what I like but when load is applied that can change as the mechanic suggested is a good idea to install a little negative camber. A small amount of toe in and center the steering wheel. I don't know of any one who likes to drive around with the wheel off.

I will check the entire front end again as I may have misses some thing but every one that I have talked to say that there dodge does not drive very good, which lead me to think that there was a problem shared by all?

My fathers 89 dodge, drove like a duck going to a water hole. The front axle on the 4x4 looked to have a huge amount of negative camber and the tires looked like it too. He pulled the hubs after he made a witness mark on the top and he machined enough of the back side to have 0 or very close to that camber. He was not going to buy any shims. The result was a truck that did not wear out the tires and drove good for a change. When I tweaked my Toyota 4x4 front Axel, my father did the same thing to it and the results was a 0 camber again.

 

[Joe G.]

There should be no slack in the track bar. I check mine at oil change time with a dial indicator. My '95 4X4 has 128K miles on it. Many of those on the rough county road I live on. So far the only front end part I have had to change is a front axle U-joint. It still steers as good as it did when it was new except that the wheel is a little easier to turn. No ball joint wear that I can detect. I thought I had an alignment problem once but it turned out to be a loose belt on a rear tire. The alignment is still within the specs as show on Dave Frittz's web site. I think that if your truck is within those specs then curing the poor steering problem with alignment may just be hiding some other problem. I think I would check for worn bushings in the suspension arms.

 

[Extreme1]

The best way to check the trac bar (and check the tie rods while you're there) is to have someone jiggle the steering wheel back and forth. The trac bar can usually have enough preload to keep you from detecting slop. I have a Linstad end on mine, it's adjustable.

 

[Loren]

Jimk,



When the track bar wore out on my 2000 (model year), the mechanic at the dealership demonstrated it to me. He had the office lady sit in the truck while it was on his alignment rack. She started the engine and moved the steering wheel back and forth while the mechanic and I watched the front axle. It moved side-to-side about an inch. That explained the steering wander I had been complaining about.



The excellent dealership at Batesville Dodge in Batesville, Indiana, paid for the part while I paid for the labor. The truck had about 37,000 miles on it and was out of warranty. We both realized that the track bar hadn't worn out in those last 1000 miles. Very fair treatment.



Good luck.



Loren

 

[jrobinson2]

The caster is controlled by the upper ball joint inserts. They are changed to adjust the castor to specification. Over on Dave Frittz's website is a good set of alignment specs. I've used them and highly recommend them however you must be sure the shop that does the work gets the specs you want. A before and after print out of the specs should do.

The camber is adjusted at the ball joints, the caster is usually adjusted with the eccentrics on the lower control arms.

Jared