To Avoid an Accident

[SShafranko]

As the title says in order to avoid rear-ending a mini van which rear-ended the car in front of him, i jammed on my brakes and turned my wheel as far as it would go to the right. In doing so, i hit a divider with my right tire while the wheel was turned all the way to the right. Now the bottom of my steering wheel is at 4 o'clock instead of six. I looked under the truck on a lift and had a mechanic look at it also. We cannot find any of the steering components damaged or bent, there is no paint peeling from any of the bars (pitman,tracking,etc. ) indicating buckling, and the nuckle looks OK. I did see a tire mark on my lower control arm where the tire flexed on impact. He is telling me that it is knocked out of aligment. I don't believe it! Its almost like my steering gear box skipped a couple of teeth. Any ideas appreciated.

 

[MMeier]

Get it on an alignment machine... tell you real quick whats outta whack.

 

[ttbird]

My bet is a bent spindle. Doesn't take a real hard hit to bend them and only an alignment will tell you. Looking at them is no good unless really bent.

 

[SShafranko]

TY. I'll be visiting the aligment shop tuesdaY.

 

[Scooby]

By the way - nice move in avoiding an accident!!

 

[THorn]

This brings back some memories!! On a nice rainy spring day i had a women run a stop sign, well she kinda just rolled through it, because she was learning how to drive after recently loosing her right LEG! Ok, that's a whole different story, but how many people have been run into my a one legged women driver! Back to the thread... . She hit me SQUARE in the center of my passenger side rim/wheel. Truck drove fine, but the steering wheel was off, like you described. Everything checked out as "OK" and an alignment fixed the steering wheel miss-alignment. That was 30K plus miles ago and have had no other issues with steering or front end parts. Lucky i guess. Good luck!

 

[bighammer]

I did the same sort of move, except instead of turning that hard and hitting the snowbank (and whatever was hiding in/behind it) I caught the rear end of the car. She was either turning left or crossing the road and I was looking straight at her side otherwise.

Nobody hurt, her car needed a whole new backside, and my Ranch Hand had a little bit of rust (and cheapo powdercoat) buffed off.

 

[boomchadda]

Now the bottom of my steering wheel is at 4 o'clock instead of six. I looked under the truck on a lift and had a mechanic look at it also. We cannot find any of the steering components damaged or bent, there is no paint peeling from any of the bars (pitman,tracking,etc. ) indicating buckling, and the nuckle looks OK... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... " This Problem sounds all too familiar for me and my truck"