Wobbly steering

[Ecnerwal]

I've had some slight annoyances with the steering for a while, it's been on my list to get fixed "sometime soon", but nothing big - occasional "sticky" behavior (turn a bit more than the usual old age slop before any results, with a more sudden movement than usual when it did move) and some minor wobbles which would usually go away if the brakes were tapped, or a sharp corner or two taken. It got very bad a few years back and replacing the tie rods (across the front - 4wd heavy duty - I gather that there are many variants) seemed to fix it for a fairly long time. I could not find any movement with the minor crud, and the tie rods were not found until they went to scary despite being on the list for my mechanic to find the cause of those steering weirdnesses for a long time. These recent issues were definitely load sensitive - much worse with a full load.

Yesterday something let go big time - scary again. No load to speak of on. Drove up to get some stuff from my shop, fine, the usual minor crud. Drove away (after turning around, which involves some sharp turning) and it had a major wobble that would not quit. Tried all the usual (brakes, reverse, turn this way and that) and nothing cured it. Went where I was going at low speed and parked it. Came home (wife's car) and read the board for hints, went back and looked it over with a clearer idea of what I might be hunting, found that the first ball-joint in the steering chain (pitman arm, I believe) (which appeared not to have been changed with the tie rods, though it's back half was, I think) seemed to have excessive motion. Could not find a mechanic with an opening, could find the parts, gritted teeth and spent a greasy rusty day. Replaced the whole thing because I could not envision success re-using the rusty sleeve and other end, and I could envision spending a lot less of my time fighting rusty parts by taking the whole set.

Got "Chassis 500" parts becasue I could not really see a reason to spend more for Moog parts on a plain jane stock work truck. Under $80 including a can of PB blaster and two sizes of ball-joint/tie-rod seperator tools just in case. One size would have been fine, but another trip to the store would have cost more than the other size of tool and I might be able to find it again when I next need it. On the bad joint the tool did not work until the rubber seal tore off, on the good joint the tool worked without killing the rubber seal.

I set the new up to the same length as the old and bolted it in place before I ran out of time for the day - will take it out and see if it more-or-less works , recheck the bolts, and hope that that was it. If that wasn't it, the other tie rods are still fairly new and I can't detect any motion, so it would be the (power) steering box. I don't see any signs of bolts tearing the frame or the frame being cracked (and thanks to the board for things to look for). One oddity that I'm not sure about, as I was sitting still, was that when I first tried firing up the engine and spinning the wheel after I got the new parts in place, it seemed to hang up in the middle. I had cranked it a ways left before removal to have some working room, and it returned to center fine, and went back left fine (much better than when I turned it there with the bad parts before disassembly), but seemed to be binding at the middle - and I have not touched the adjusting screw on the power steering box (yet). I figure I'd better try it rolling on the driveway before getting too excited about this (turning while sitting still is hard on it) but it should go both ways just fine, in my past experience, and I can't see why it would not do so after replacing this part, unless something else is also whacked. I did not push it, for the time being. So what else might I look for if my test run does not go well?

[MylilBowTie]

Center Link? Not sure how to test it tho.

[Ecnerwal]

I don't _think_ this has a center link. I find that my grasp of all the appropriate terms is lacking sometimes (there are so many veriations), but as far as I can tell from looking at the stuff I have, a center link is where there's two small tie rods (across the front) connecting to a center link (across the front). I gather that this might go with an independent front suspension, from a look through the parts book to find a setup that looked like mine yesterday. This is a "solid axle" setup (I have not counted the bolts on the diff, but there are a goodly number of them, and I vaguely rember that it might be a 3" Dana axle from when I replaced the shocks) so the tie rods across the front are one long and expensive one, and one short and less expensive one. Those connect directly to the castings which turn the wheels and hold the disc brake calipers (and which ride on kingpins, not ball joints on this model, as I understand it). The left casting connects to the pair of short tie rods I just replaced (which either are or connect to the pitman arm), and that connects to the arm from the steering box (which I think is the steering arm, but perhaps that's the pitman arm?).

I suppose bad kingpins could also be a problem, which sound expensive and/or painful, so I hope not. If the pervailing price of $220 or so for a rebuilt steering box is for a power steering box, that would be OK if it is the problem.

But I need to go try it out and see what its really doing now.

[Ecnerwal]

Well, that was not all of it. Did seem to be fine for 5-6 miles after doing the repair, then it didn't want to make a corner properly (bound up turning left well before a full turn) and went all wobbly for several miles. I was on my way to visit a potential mechanic anway, so I dragged it in there. His opinion was that the front axle U-joints were bound up, but he couldn't get to it until the week after next.

Turning around to get out of his driveway, something pinged/clunked and it drove fine all the way back. According to another garage I just got off the phone with, who can look at it Monday, they think this means the king pins are probably bad. I suppose I'll find out when it's ripped apart. $$$...

I'm giving up and letting them deal with it. Here's hoping I've found the mythical reliable mechanic at last. I don't get much joy out of working on the truck, and on the whole I'm just as happy giving the money to let someone else deal with all the accumulated rust and grease. I get throughly peeved with anything that does not want to unscrew when it's asked politely, and body rot is just depressing (and inevitable in this area).

Truckless for now...