https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptz3...ature=youtu.be

Any insight? I'm leaning towards steering box, power steering pump.

Hands off the wheel, sorry about the poor video, (also vertical...) , but I wanted to get something without killing anyone.

7.3L 2003 180K

 

I'd get under the Ex with my son turning the wheel and looking for sloppy steering components, then safely jack up a front tire to check for unit bearing, ball joint health. If you're handy, fix worn parts yourself, or have it done at your trusted mechanics shop.

 

.... 95% fine on the way home.... Go figure.....

 

Does this happen after a sharp turn? Check your power steering fluid.

 

At least it's not this bad....

 

Still wouldn't hurt to do a little investigating under the front end. These things rarely disappear like magic.

 

Some of that could have been caused by a crowned road surface.

 

I`de say either a bad tire (shifted belt) or a partially seized up axle U-joint. I`de lean more towards a U-joint since you say it`s intermittent. I did one on a customers truck a month ago. It came in for a shimmy that I couldn`t find. I test drove it for 10 miles and it didn`t show up. I did some other maintenance that it came in for then test drove it again, the shimmy was there. turns out it was a seized up U-joint. even with the hubs unlocked the axle will still partially spin and every once in a while it would stop in the seized up spot.

Here is what I would do. lock the hubs and turn the steering wheel fully left or right, jack up that wheel and spin the wheel. do one side and then the other, one of them is bound to be sticking.

Good luck!

 

^ Seized u-joint.

 

I had the same problem turned out to be bad needle bearing in the back of the Hub.
manually Lock the Hubs and see if it stops
I was also getting a chirp sound like opening a tight steel door in a steel frame.
Hope this helps

 

Awesome, I knew this was a good place to post this, I do think that cranking the wheel may make it act up, I have to test it officially, I had some errands I had to run and didn't want to try and aggravate the situation. I'm going to change the fluid this weekend and get it up on a jack and poke around. I did get a chance to talk to my mechanic and he did mention it sounded like u joints. Thanks you all for the valuable insight, I just got off midnight shifts this morning, I'll get some time tomorrow to look into it. I will follow up with the fix when found.

 

I thought mine was U-Joints so I bought a set and pulled the bearing (they were tight with no wheel play) but when I pulled the axles the U-joints moved free with no play then I saw the Needle bearing in the back of the hub was shot.
It was cheek to buy new needle bearings and easy to change change them in the bearing

 

Mine was u-joints and I started a very long thread on it 2 years ago; "steering wheel jerks back and forth".

 

My bearings were grabbing and letting go of one axle slowing that wheel for a second pulling the steering and letting go. If you have bad u-joints locking your hubs will make it Worse if it's the needle bearing it will stop

 

It depends on how much the u-joint turns unlocked (friction from the hub).