Steering Desperate

[Fatboy]

I am lost on this one. The truck has a jerking wheel when you are taking low speed turn greater than 45deg in either direction. It reminds me of the truck being in 4 wheel. The front tires may have skipped on each other taking a corner on dry pavement earlier tonight to cause this? This was instananeous, I cut some tight turns in a tight paved driveway, I return to thre main road and the wheel begins to jerk back and forth. I did a quick check in the dark, no leaks, tires are at pressure, pump appears fine. The truck has had no problems, 39K everything is mint. I am stumped, steeing box, axles/u-joints, I could use some ideas before I take a chance on 5 star.



Thanks & God Bless America

 

[MCummings]

This is just a hunch, but, check your front differential.

If you can, Jack up both front wheels and see if you can turn them, when you turn one, the other wheel should turn smoothly, and in the opposite direction.



A big cause could be the U-Joints (are they called yokes?)

These are the ones that actually link the tire to the axle. not the one that connects the axle to the driveshaft.





I have a 2wd, and only hear-say experiance with 4wd trucks, but hope this helps.



MerrickNJr

 

[Smoke Chopper]

I have had the same thing happen before on my old 1 ton chevy.

Check that the U joints in the front axel on the left and right are not seized up. You can jack up the front axel put it on jack stands then turn the wheel to the left or right then turn the front tire and watch the U joint and listen for crunching and popping from the joint. Also most times you can see red dust around the joint seal area is also a good indication. What is happing is the joint is binding up as you flex the joint (turning left or right) and that causes the wheels or the steering wheel to jump as the needles are jumping over each other in the joint. Hope that this can help you cause I rembember when that happend to me the first time.

 

[KYOUNG]

jerking

I think your vacuum switch on your front axle might be engagedl

I have had my left front spring tower break at the frame and make it drive real strange,the top of the shock got into the bottom of the RWAL valve on my mastercylinder and broke an electrical connector

 

[Fatboy]

I have it jacked up on stands. Each wheel spins freely without causing any movement fron the other. I'm going to start checking the u-joints, ball joints and bearings now. I also suspected maybe the original Badyears, maybe havinbg an internal failure. But it still runs normal cruisin straight. Back to the driveway.



Thanks

 

[Blkdawdg]

Happened to me once

This same exact thing happened to me on my '97. It was due to the hub bearings being bad. They were actually so bad that one of them was BROKEN (I have no idea how that could happen). Luckily, it was 50 miles from being out of warranty so they were replaced free of charge, but I think that the receipt said that they were something like $350 a piece. WHEW!



Hope this helps

 

[Fatboy]

I think I'm getting closer. Front end on stands, wheels spin fine pointed straight, each one spinning independent of each other. Cut the wheels either hard right or hard left, right wheel spins fine, left wheek spins half way then hits a dead spot that takes both hands and a bear hug to rotate it through the stiffness. Maybe I have a bad left u joint. Hard to believe with 39K easy miles. Any other ideas, I'll be glad to listen.



Thanks,



Fatboy

 

[Extreme1]

It's the U-joint.

If you spin it that way a while and it has grease left in it you might be able to get it to last for a while. I had one last 2 years after I first noticed it. Every time I felt it bind, I drove around in a tight circle.



Of course, if you still have warantee left, get it fixed.

 

[Fatboy]

I just got the truck back from the dealer. They confirmed my suspicians, it was the u-joint. I asked them how the truck could lose a u-joint after 39k easy miles, no plowing, mostly highway. They didn't have an answer. I have to hand it to Foss Motors in Exeter N. H. , they told me I was out of warranty but they would pay for the new u-joint and I could pay for labor. Well the part was $125 and the two hours of labor (not that I could do this job any faster) was $126. I would say that this dealer earned their 5 star. Truck is drivin nice, with the exception of the badyears that I'm saving to replace.