Truck wanders on the road

[chevymotocross]

I have an 87 silverado 2wd swb. Ever since I bought the truck, I never really liked the feel of it on the road.... especially highway. The trucks balljoints, tierods, and wheel bearing are all solid, no play. What I do notice is it has alittle more resistance turning the wheel left, than right, just a slightly more drag to it but nothing drastic. The truck likes to pull to the right. I had pep boys align in 3 times and it still likes to wander to the right, they claim it could be a worn steering box. When sitting in the truck, engine off, there is about almost an inch of free play at the wheel, left to right. Also, when I brake hard, the truck really likes to pull hard to the right. I've had cars with bad calipers before, but you usually know for sure it's a bad caliper when it's literally almost stopping the wheel, the truck does not do this, I doubt it has anything to do with a caliper. When I'm on the highway, the truck likes to "wander in the wind", and not track a straight line. Kinda scary. It's not totally drastic, but enough to make driving annoying. Any suggestions?

[75shortysocal]

check to see if all your steering box bolts are in? or if the framerail is cracked at the mounting points of the steering box?

[f.monroe]

Sounds like the caster is off but try this . Drive it a little and then jack up each wheel . See if they are hard to turn . Your pulling problem under braking could be a collapsed rubber hose . Frank

[smashingchuck]

bleed the front brakes...

[Eyegore]

This may sound stupid but what type of tires do you have. I've noticed the cheaper tires have a tendency to do what your describing and since you mentioned you had Pep Boys do your alignment there maybe a chance you bought your tires there to, not to be a jerk or anything and please don't take it that way. I say this because my brother bought some tires at PB and had all sort of steering problems, went somewhere else and paid more, well a lot more for michelins wala problem solved.

[MylilBowTie]

I would look at replacing the rubber brake hoses. They don't always act up real bad when they are defective. Same with the calipers it would be cheap insurance to replace. Its days work calipers, rubber hoses, new pads would all be under 100.

How wide are your tires, what tire sizes are installed? Few other things to look at would be wheel bearings, adjusting the steering box, worn center link, idler arm.

[N2TRUX]

You have more than one problem. The wandering could be a steering box, as well as other steering component failure. The hard pulling sounds to be brake related.

Break it down and solve one problem at a time starting with the scary brakes.

[chevymotocross]

The tires, which I'm not a fan of, are Kelly Safari p265/75r15. They are too big a tire for my taste but they have great tread still. When time for replacing tires, I'm thinking about dropping down to 235's and lowering the truck. The wheel bearings on both sides are fine. I am first going to start with bringing it to my father's friend's auto body shop. He does alignments there himself, and is more dedicated I believe than PB is. Figure why not double check and make sure the alignment is spot on before messing with other things.

[chevyjr73]

i had similar problems like you describe and after replacing a few front end parts and the problem still being there turns out it was just a bad rubber brake line.

[Eyegore]

Originally Posted by chevymotocross

The tires, which I'm not a fan of, are Kelly Safari p265/75r15. They are too big a tire for my taste but they have great tread still. When time for replacing tires, I'm thinking about dropping down to 235's and lowering the truck. The wheel bearings on both sides are fine. I am first going to start with bringing it to my father's friend's auto body shop. He does alignments there himself, and is more dedicated I believe than PB is. Figure why not double check and make sure the alignment is spot on before messing with other things.

Kelly's in my opinion are a good tire, and 265's are fine, I'm running 275's on mine. As others have said check brake lines.

Tom

[MylilBowTie]

Wider tires tend to track the road more. That will also make any brake and suspension problems more noticeable. I also have a set of Kelly tires and really like them. I never really heard much about them. Mine are 31x10.50 Safari Suv tires pretty much same size your running. I've been pretty impressed with them. They ride good, aren't to loud, really great traction in the snow.