Front end slop?

[alvald83]

My '69 f250 has been modestly restored to be a weekend getaway with the cabbover camper that i have on it. The last thing that i need to do is to get rid of the front end sloppiness. I have about 4 inches of play in the steering wheel. I am taking it to a shop to have the work done. I want them to replace all of the steering compontents since they will be there...steering box, and any other steering parts needed. I did do the radius arm bushings, rag joint and replaced the drag link a couple of years ago. What else should i have them replace? I am tired of zig zagging down the road. Thanks Al

[Kurt Combs]

You probably have wear on all of your steering gear, tie rod ends, king pins, etc. and my guess is your steering box is shot. BUT, I would highly recommend you have a good shop diagnose the problem before you start putting parts on the truck. I chased that problem for years and if I had it to do over again I would rebuild the whole front end at one time, period. Oh, and I would make sure I had good front tires and that the rear end has good bushings in the spring ends and shackles. If you are buying a rebuilt steering box don't even think about a Napa or O'Reilly's part, go directly to Red Head Steering (not their exact name, try Google) and order a rebuilt, they are the only company that bushes the lower shaft coming out of the box. That lower shaft is where most of my slop was and it was made worse by a rebuilt from one of those companies I just mentioned. So ask for an estimate to rebuild the whole front end and save up and do it once and do it right. Plus you will be amazed when you drive out of that shop with a completely rebuilt front end!

[basketcase0302]

Al,
You should really first realize how many parts would be involved in an "rebuild whole front end" estimate-and how much work is involved.
It could lead to over a grand easily to rebuild an entire front end of a bump as it is a labor intensive job.
Especially the king pin bushings- which will be worn and need replaced most of the time. Here's the schematic:

I reccommend having your mechanic first look at the rag joint / tie rod ends / radius arm bushings / steering box / wheel bearings one at a time and get written proposals for the repairs on each one of these.
Let us know how it goes.

[Kurt Combs]

Jeff is correct. After I had replaced everything that was causing trouble, I still didn't have to change my king pins, but just about everything else. I did just install new Michelin tires on my F250 and I noticed some of the wander returned, very strange. So I reduced my front tire pressure to 40 lbs from 50 lbs and the problem went away. I knew it wasn't new tires and the only other thing that had been changed was the tire pressure, so it had to be culprit. BTW, the thing not to do is adjust the screw on the top of the steering box, that will make very little difference and it can cause some real problems. If you do decide to adjust it, do some research first so you don't cause more problems than you are eliminating.

Good luck and please keep us posted. We love to hear success stories!

[Nitekruizer]

Here is something that might be worth checking. I used to notice that there was quite a bit of play in my steering wheel and that it seemed to be increasing. This was when I still had the manual steering box. While I was converting to power steering I found the problem. The clamp that was holding the rag joint to the manual steering box input shaft had come loose and was the cause of the increasing play in my steering wheel. It prettty much stripped the spline in the rag joint but the spline on the input shaft of the box was still okay. A potentially very dangerous situation.

[Kurt Combs]

I found two problems in my steering that multiple shops missed by doing a simple inspection or two. First thing I would do is open the hood and reach in through the window and turn the wheel back and forth lightly and look at the steering shaft, rag joint and connection going into the steering box. Any play in those parts? Then you can open the door, get down on your knees and move the wheel while looking at the bottom of the steering box, this is how I found the slop in my steering box that three shops missed. Then if you have a helper, have him, or her, move the steering wheel back and forth while you put your hand around every tie rod end under the truck (learned that trick on this site), you can feel slop that is hard to see with the human eye. I am not an expert on king pins, but I would imagine jacking up the truck and putting it on jack stands, then grab each tire top and bottom and see if you can wiggle it in and out. Do not do this without the jack stands! If a hydraulic jack fails the truck will drop in an instant! Do you have good tread on your tires and are they properly inflated? Do you have a sway bar on the front, it will help it have more responsive steering, especially at low speeds. By the way, are you estimating the slop in your steering while stopped or while driving? And, don't forget, the only steering box I would buy is a Red-Head from:

http://www.redheadsteeringgears.com/