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“Drunk Steering”

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Tankerz250

Tankerz250

Hi ya! I’m new to the forums but been using em since I bought my truck a little over a year ago. So bear with me a bit here.

The issue: I can’t keep the truck steady in the lane, it’s almost like I’m driving drunk. This truck is my daily driver and I want to be able to drive it correctly. The truck wants to wonder to one side of the lane or the other, I’ll correct it and then the process repeats so I have to keep playing with it to just stay in the lane, at this point I don’t even like driving on the highways because of this “drunk steering”. I have basically replaced all the steering components except, the king pin bushings (everything seemed tight so I left it alone) and the steering box, it looks to be a red head steering box but not sure how long it’s been on the truck. Also I have a cross over steering set up with a single steering stabilizer and a 4in lift on fresh 35’s. I’ll have to double check tomorrow but I believe I do have an upgraded steering shaft. The steering feels tight with minimal play as well. And When driving the truck, my steering wheel is sitting at 10 o’clock going straight. I’ve had an alignment done twice now and it doesn’t seem to help. I’ve tried fiddling with the tie rods to align the steering wheel but it never stays put.

My Question is, what might be my problem here? Do I need to rebuilt the steering box? Is it the power steering pump? Would a steering box brace fix this? Something wrong with the column? King pin bushings? Steering stabilizers?

Also i came from an 84 W350 with the 360 in it. Steering was sloppy as all hell but could keep her straight and I know for a fact I could get at least another turn to a turn and a half more outta that truck than this one, is that just the nature of cross over steering?

Thanks guys! Any advice would greatly help!
 
Axle shaft u-joints can bind even when hubs are unlocked giving a bind and release effect. Also if your crossover steering didn't eliminate the plate behind the steeing box , look for cracks in plate and frame.
 
the plate is eliminated, ill throw some grease in the front end again and see what that does, and would it matter the position that the u joints are in?
 
If you have the wrong backspace on your wheels the truck will want to follow the wheel ruts on the highway. I ran into this on my 89. Swapped out the wheels for ones with more of a factory backspace and my wondering/ following the ruts issue went away.
 
This was cause of my Drunken Steering issues... Started out as a small wandering issue, but overtime it got worse as the joint got stiffer and stiffer. Eventually it forced me to take the truck off the highway, and later off the road entirely until I could sort it out. It wasn't one of those things you just check in place. I didn't discover it until I physically pulled the shaft and tried to move it.

Frozen Axle.jpg
 
Update: greased the front end and seemed to help a little bit, really didn’t seem like the u-joints and frozen and really wouldn’t expect then to be as I replaced them this time last year. And have greased them anytime I went through deep standing water. Checked the frame and I can’t see any cracks in the frame, I was talking with my dad about it and he said we did set a little toe to the alignment, Not sure why but I’ll have to schedule an appointment at my buddy’s shop again to do it. And for the backspacing, I’m not sure what that has to do with it because my tires fit nicely in the wheel wells without it poking out, and with my 84 I had and the crappy roads of Illinois I always followed ruts even with the stock set up. For my 92, I bought it with these rims and don’t have another set/stock set to compare
 
Set it to dead Zero Toe if possible, forget about factory specs in your case.
These solid axles are not rocket science to align.
 
There’s a 4” lift, right? Anyone check the caster/ kingpin inclination on this? Not enough (+) caster will definitely cause wandering.
put a angle finder/ protractor front/back along the top of the knuckle flange. Betcha it’s near zero or negative.
 
It does not matter where the drag link connects to the axel. Toe in is there to compensate for the play in all the steering linkage. King pins tie rod ends everything.
You want some toe in so when you roll down the road the drag of the wheels takes up the slop and the wheels end up pointing straight ahead. Set the toe in to factory specs it will solve some of the wondering. No toe in or negative toe in will cause the front end to wonder.
 
Alright from my understanding when we did the alignment last time we set the tow in just a bit, I could be wrong, I’ll look for the print out, I have it somewhere. And as for the rear end, I checked all the springs and make sure everything was tight when I had to put clutch packs and spider gears in the rear end. As for steering joints, that could be causing a little bind but wouldn’t explain the wondering. Since I don’t get much day light here anymore I’ll be heading to my buddy’s shop Friday to check out the alignment and make sure we are in factory specs.
 
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Issue 128 – Digital Version
Digital Magazines
FREE!
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Renew
Subscribe
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Back Issues
Subscription Status
Address Change Form
Buyer's Guides
Ram Diagnostic Trouble Codes
The Perfect Collection
The Perfect Collection Vol. II
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What Makes Us Tick?
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