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View Full Version : Loose steering on the tow rig



slim616
05-20-2010, 04:50 PM
ill give the back story on my 06, 6.0, 350. The truck has never had tight steering to begin with but it seems to have gotten a lot worse. during the winter i had a plow hit the front tire pretty good. I had no noticeable problems other then the truck pulling a little to one side which i figured was from being out of alignment from the hit. No biggie ill just fix that when i go to get new tires in a month or so. So a few months go by and i get the death wabble and the tires are pretty much finished. Also i noticed the trucks steering would get loose in the steering wheel on sharper turns.

So I go down to get new tires and a alignment figuring it would fix everything. After the alignment and tires the truck stop pulling and now the loose steering is really noticeable since the truck doesn't pull.

First i can rock the steering wheel back and forth by almost a hour before the tires react if you think of it as a clock. (i'm guessing the steering box needs adjustment) Secondly which i cant figure out, is when I go around sharp winding turns a little to fast the damn thing will all of a sudden pull even harder in the direction of the turn. Then if i steer a little the other way it will pull hard in the other direction. This will go on till i stop the truck and rock the steering wheel back and forth really fast then for some reason its fine till the next time i take a turn to fast.

i thought maybe the TRE's were bad but they seem not to have to much play in them. But what i did notice was that when i rocked the tires back and forth with the steering wheel I could feel a slight click in the pitman arm. Now i'm wandering if maybe the steering box got messed up with that hit. if so could it cause that odd ass wondering in sharp curves in the road? Which now Ive gotten to the point I can tell you exactly when its about to do it and slow down to avoid it from happening. Which sucks because my shop sits on a winding road were it gos from hard left curve rite into a hard right curve and so on for almost seven miles.

BigDaveZJ
05-20-2010, 05:00 PM
I know on the leaf sprung front end SD's the balljoints are notorious for going out and causing looseness in the steering.

paulkeith
05-20-2010, 07:36 PM
Yeah, Dave's advice is spot on.

I'd check your balljoints and unit bearings, TREs, drag link, and especially the steering box and steering linkage. I've adjusted the steering box a tad on my SD and its still pretty vague steering.

If the tire impact was bad enough I wouldn't rule out damage to the steering box. I had a buddy in a cummins ram that hit a car that pulled out in front of him pretty much front right tire first and it sheared the shaft the pitman bolts to right in half.

Also given that yours is coil sprung, i'd check whatever panhard bar you have or whatever provides lateral axle location.

slim616
05-20-2010, 08:42 PM
i never thought about ball joints since it just clicked over 100k but ill check.

To be honest i would swear it was the TRE but I can't get them to move. along with any other bushing. The best way to describe the steering feeling, is when it cuts loose, the tires feel they are leaning left then i turn the steering wheel a little and they feel like they are leaning right. you can actually feel the pop as they pull left to right or vise versa.

BigDaveZJ
05-20-2010, 10:03 PM
On the early Super Duty's you're considered lucky to get 100k out of ball joints, so it might be worth looking at.

paulkeith
05-20-2010, 10:44 PM
You need to check the TREs with a crowbar, if you aren't already. Your hand/arm force isn't going to be nearly enough.