Another 6.0 owner , from San Diego.

Glad to have you on board Johnny!

 

WoW... where've I been hiding?!

Thanks for the warm welcome. I hope to help as many that have helped me in this great Ford forum! Surely I can offer something... (I know where the good donut shops are ) of value.

... of all the things lately, I've been reading up about changing the steering box. I've got an appt on Wed AM to verify thats my issue with darting and wandering. Otherwise... she's purring along just great!!

 

Johnny,

Are you a broadcaster, or do you make motorcycles fly? Basketball?

Welcome to our little piece of cyberspace. Good guys on here.

Pop

 

Motorcycles fly... yes. Back in the day.

(however, there is also a stuntman named Roger Wells who was "johnnyairtime" and often on TV... jumping trains, etc. That was him, not me)

... I got my nickname due to my first name being Johnny... and I often was known to catch some Air on my dirt bike.

Here I am in 1995;

 

Bout time you made it in here, Johnny.

Great pic!

 

Welcome Johnny! You've already tried to tighten up the steering box? It worked great for me. Darting is a good description!

 

Ya ... I know.
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I guess it's time for me to frequent the boards more often, as I tend to just jump in when I need something. But glad to be here!!!

Now... I need to see if my local Ford tech can find me a suspension guy to do some side work. I was told this AM that my ball joints need replacing, as well as drag link. I'll get a second opinion... as I can't afford to do trial and error. I won't tackle it myself due to the time it takes, and well... it's just too important for me to NOT screw it up. If it were tie rod ends or something... I'd be all over it. But when it comes to poppin' out the axles... one damaged inner seal and I'd be hosed. So, I leave it to the "pros"!

 

Try the steering box tightening trick before the ball joints. Worth a try and super easy for us pseudo mechanics! I think the dealership sees a Excursion/F250 come in and automatically says 'needs bjoints' before testing anything. Great idea to get the 2nd.

 

Did that long ago (months)... and it's gotten worse.
...in fact, if you search by my posts... you'll see I've done quite a bit of "fixing" up front to cure some issues.

I took the EX into a notable alignment shop... they came back with the needed parts list. I had even mentioned I thought it was the steering box... they didn't even mention it being the culprit. Said I had 1/8" of movement in my BJoints, some movement in my dropped pitman arm...etc.etc.

Get this... they quoted $1770.00 to;
- R&R pitman arm for inspection, re-install, loctite and torque
- R&R to replace upper/lower b-joints both sides
- R&R to replace drag link b-joints
- and align
... I do know this place is spendy, but they also are arrogant. Rightfully so in some aspects (the only place locally who could align a overly lifted I-beam vehicle by bending and notching I-beams and radius arms... and do so correctly). But holy crap, I nearly shat myself when the tech read me the quote price. I immediately excused myself once the $46 diagnosis fee was paid and my receipt duly noted with the work they quoted.

I came home, did some research and am trying to get the local Ford tech who does side work to get it done for me. So far, so slow. But it's okay... I'll be travelling for the next week for work, and have no time to deal with this.