Lose steering.. need advise

[Ben Rumson]

Hi All,



I now have 200k miles and loving the truck more each day. Still pulls HARD.



My steering wheel feels quite lose though. As I'm driving in a straight line, I have to almost continually stay on top of the steering wheel. Even going in a straight line, I have about 4" to 5" of play left and right in the wheel movement before the tires actually begin turning. It feels as if the steering wheel doesn't engage the wheels until the steering wheel it'self has traveled several inches.



At inspection about 6 years ago, the shop said that the Track Bar was worn and I replaced it. I could notice no change or problem either before or after the repalcement. I may have gotten screwed.



Are these the symptoms of a truly worn Track Bar? If so, is this an application where the Luke's Link is a fix?



I initially thought it might be the Steering Shaft and that the Bergesson repalcement would be the answer. But... the loser the steering wheel gets (IE the more oversteering I have to do) I'm thinking that it might be something else... ? humm?



Rather than throw $ at it, I could sure use some help determining the fix.



Thanks in advance.

- Ben

 

[San Felipe Bob]

You may be due for another track bar.

Also check the ball joints and tie rod ends.

check your steering box too.

My steering box kept wearing out.

You should not see any side to side movement at the pitman arm.



It's easy to check with 2 people.

Have an assistant sit in the truck with the trans in park, parking brake set, and the engine off for safety.

Have the assistant slowly turn the steering wheel left to right as far as it will go gently with only a slight effort.

Usually 6 to 8 inches.

While they are moving the wheel check for worn parts.



Replace all the worn parts.

A worn track bar can take out all the other steering components.



I highly recommend the DSS steering brace.

It's a simple and very well designed brace.



SFB

 

[Ben Rumson]

What is the DSS Brace?



Also, has anyone else had my symptoms? Other recommendations.



One more important note: About 2k miles ago my driver side outer u-joint on the front axle seized and I replaced it. With the driver's tire in the air, I turned the steering all the way left and right while spinning the tire by hand outside. When the steering wheel was about 3/4 of the way turned with the tire spinning, the u-joint would seize and the steering wheel would not stay turned to that side. This forced the steering wheel back into straight alignment and the wheel would not stay turned.



I'm sure this was hard on some of the steering/alignment components. I don't know enough about steering stuff to know what other parts this would put pressure/wear on.



Does this shed any more light on the cause of the loosness of the steering wheel?

 

[San Felipe Bob]

The DSS brace is availible from Piers

Check this link.

http://piersdiesel.com/DSS1.htm

"I'm sure this was hard on some of the steering/alignment components"

Hard on ALL the components!

The seized joint had to be making quite a racket.

The brake rotors were warped on my truck.

This caused extra strain on the front end too.

It would shimmy like crazy when coming to a stop, which added to the wear on my front end.

Good thing there are allot of cures for our braking problems.

Slotted rotors, High quality pads, Stainless steel brakelines, High performance brake fliud, Larger rear wheel cylinders.

And don't forget.

"SFB" caliper boots to keep the dirt and water away from the caliper bolts on 2nd gen 2500 and 3500 front calipers. (PM me for boot details)



SFB

 

[BarryG]

My steering wheel has some play in it but not as much as you describe. I just put new tires on and put on the Kore chase system so i thought it was time for an alignment. All my ball joints etc checked out fine (I have replaced the track bar already with a third gen conversion kit). Alignment turned out great. The tech did say that my steering gear box was not so great and that there was a pretty fair amount of play in it. He felt that 176k on the original box was pretty good and that I should look into replacing it. While it does have play in it it has for quite some time and does not seem to be any worse now than it has been for the last several years. I just assummed that was how it was supposed to be and just chalked it up to DC junk. I may or may not repalce it for a while.



I went online that night and ran across AGR boxes. If I remember many here have used them with mostly positive results. I also saw their Rock Ram system which sounded great but at close to 1k for it I think I will have to forgo that particular option.