steering loose

[Fordguy85]

any idea what could cause the following problem,


I can drive down the road and let go of the steering wheel and it will go perfectly down the road in a straight line, however when i try to steer it, there is A TON of play in the steering wheel, Way more than there should be


its on a 72 ford F250 no power steering any idea guys ?

[toddspeed]

Sounds like a sloppy steering box. I've heard Redhead does great rebuilds on an exchange basis, but I haven't tried them yet.

[Randle]

It could be the steering box, the rag joint or a tie rod end. The best thing is to have someone work the play in the steering wheel while you look at the joints and steering box.

[390bump]

My steering is also very sensitive - just put in a readhead box since everything else is new... Steering is tighter with no play at all now... but I still find that the steering wheel is too sensitive - you have to make little adjustments when just driving down a road. Ordered a smaller steering wheel to see if that helps. May get some sway bars for fun in the future. I know they are more for turns but they could make a tiny improvement for straight line driving.

[70shortwide]

My steering is also very sensitive - just put in a readhead box since everything else is new... Steering is tighter with no play at all now... but I still find that the steering wheel is too sensitive - you have to make little adjustments when just driving down a road. Ordered a smaller steering wheel to see if that helps. May get some sway bars for fun in the future. I know they are more for turns but they could make a tiny improvement for straight line driving.

sounds like either you don't have enough toe-in. have you had it aligned?

also could be that the box is adjusted too tight, but if it's a new redhead box I would lean towards a toe-in issue.

[390bump]

yeah, a year or more ago I had it aligned. Since they could not do Camber I went to a place that could bend the Radius Arms a bit and they also checked alignment - those guys commented the steering box had some play that would affect steering. So I finally got around to replacing the box with the redhead unit (NOT cheap)... Like I said before, steering wheel has no play now but truck still "wanders"... Funny thing is when I had manual steering I did not have this issue. Been reading other threads saying the Ford PS is too sensitive...

[390bump]

Just ordered a Moog Steering Damper... thinking this may help! I have 31x10 tires and have read bigger tires benefit from the steering damper addition.

[Nitekruizer]

It could be any of the things already mentioned. I'm going to suggest having a good look at where the rag joint coupler fits on the input shaft of your steering gearbox. It's a splined shaft. I had manual steering in my truck and always wondered why it had so much play in it, at least 5 inches at the steering wheel. It had been getting progressively worse, so, I just assumed that my gearbox was wearing out. Like your truck, mine would go in a straight line if I took my hands off the wheel. There was nothing wrong with my steering gearbox. It wasn't until I was doing my power steering conversion that I found the real problem. The coupler was loose and the spline inside it was stripped. Eventually, it would have let go. It's a good thing that I had already stopped driving my truck.

[390bump]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I will post updates as it may help others reading this post. The truck right now rides pretty good but I am shooting for perfect or great. All the front end components are new including king pins. Just put in new shocks and a redhead steering box. The rag joint is also new. Running new Bridgestone dueler revo 2 31x10 tires.

The only issue now is that you have you to be focused when driving to make little steering corrections as you go over small (or large) bumps, road surface changes, etc... with all other vehicles I have driven you sort of just turn the wheel to change lanes or make turns or bends but otherwise the vehicle wants to go straight on its own...

Next I will install the steering bump kit. Also have a 15" steering wheel on order. Will look for the paper work from the last alignment to see what the toe was at. Will take it in to be looked at again and ask them to set toe towards the high positive side of spec.

Later looking at adding front and rear sway bars. Will post what helped and what did not...

[390bump]

Installed Moog Steering Stabilizer - best $50 ever spent on the truck! Highly recommended if you have power steering.

[Mancar1]

Installed Moog Steering Stabilizer - best $50 ever spent on the truck! Highly recommended if you have power steering.

Did the Moog solve all the problems?

[390bump]

The moog made a significant, noticeable improvement. I am probably 98% there... maybe 100% but I still want to see if I can make the overall ride and steering even better. Was looking at the truck today and wondering if I should change the front springs. The back wheels wells have a larger gap than the fronts - maybe 2 ". Would replacing the original front springs give a smoother ride? Truck is still a bit bouncy even after putting new shocks in.
Also increased tire pressure now that the steering is so much better. I have 31x10.5 tires and if the pressure is kept low I think they "soften" the ride but increase bouncing. Finally i'll get the front end alignment checked again... maybe set the Toe on the high side of spec.

[390bump]

One more comment... the area I am trying to improve is the truck "straight line" pulling ability. When a make a turn I have to help it a bit straighten out. Ideally, it would straighten out on its own. Reading up on this I think I need to increase caster. Also read that having the back higher you lose caster... So raising the front to level the truck would help. Wondering again if I should put new springs in... Which ones?

[BigFoot]

Hey,
I'm having the same problem. I did a power steering swap into my 72, all new ball joints, ends, drag link, rebuilt steering column including bushings, bearings and rag joint.
Truck goes straight if wheel is let go but still wanders real bad in road ruts, is really bad over rough road and bumps. Lots of play in wheel. id say almost from 10-2 on the wheel. so even when id be only making small corrections to stay on course im having to really whip the wheel around.
My truck is also higher in the rear than the front and I had thought about caster adjustment too. What was the part number of the Moog product you mentioned?
Were you able to make any more improvements?

[BigFoot]

bump!