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Was on the way home today and was taking a long sweeping left hand curve at 60 and got a horrible shake in the steering wheel. Kinda scared me a bit and let out of the throttle a bit. Didn't happen after and never has before. I'm under the impression it is more shocks maybe then steering, Reason I say that although I don't get alot of bounce if the road isn't perfectly smooth I can really tell it. What do ya'll think?
Take a good look at your tires. You may have a broken belt. Also check the tie rod ends. If you don't find it, I'd suggest holding the wheel with both hands and slow up some. Wishing you the best, Patrick
Tires seem fine although I may only get another year out of them.
Any other thoughts I may look at? The suspension is so stiff how can I really tell if the shocks are bad on this thing?
When that happened to me I went through all the usual stuff first and found that it was my axle U-Joints. It was intermittent and mild at first, and began to happen more frequently and then would occasionally happen so bad you couldn't keep the truck in a straight line. Job is a bit of a PITA, but I had some good help and a lift. Just wish I could have done the ball joints at the same time since I was that deep into the front end.
Good luck
Hab
When that happened to me I went through all the usual stuff first and found that it was my axle U-Joints. It was intermittent and mild at first, and began to happen more frequently and then would occasionally happen so bad you couldn't keep the truck in a straight line. Job is a bit of a PITA, but I had some good help and a lift. Just wish I could have done the ball joints at the same time since I was that deep into the front end.
Good luck
Hab
Tks ill have a look at that as well.ln40 been planning ball jobs and all as well.
Tks ill have a look at that as well.ln40 been planning ball jobs and all as well.
Going to be doing that work your self?
Something i found out the hard way. The newer 05+ trucks use a larger lower
balljoint. The kits out there now at the "rental" places does not have the right
size adaptor to install them. More on all the "fun" I am having with this little
so called easy job in the what did you do thread.
BTW I do have a list of the correct OTC adaptors for you.
This should install both the upper and lower joints.
Yeah will be tackling myself when I do. Tks for the part numbers.
Was just explaining to the wife what I'm doing on the shocks and stuff. She actually said I have a prissy truck since I'm always working on it lol. I told her I'm looking at shocks for her since she says the truck beats her to death.
Although I've done it on other things, I never thought to do it on these. Great tip.
I'm sure many have thought about it before me but, I used to work on B-1B Lancers. The pivot pin that the wing sweep actuators are held on with must be frozen with dry ice or liquid nitrogen in order to remove them. I just thought about trying it one day with dry ice and alas! It worked. They literally dropped into place. Now, I don't use dry ice so much anymore, but an overnight stay in the deep freeze works just as good.
Good info for sure. I'll be using it when I get stmit.
On another note......as a trouble shoot I replaced my steering stabilizer (got one from NAPA) The one I took off was original (ford stamp and all) It was fairly easy to move the shaft but 4he main thing was the attach point on the center link (or whatever it is) had a slight gap and the bushing was pretty bad, although not bad for almost 16 years old and 156k on the clock. The new one took SOME of the vibration out and can definitely tell the steering is smoother. With that part fixed I can tell for sure my shocks are done and I at least need to rebuild the right side and get an alignment, This one is going to take awhile to get together and do the job. Oh joy. Sean scared me abit after talking with him about his and all. I may for the first time ever RENT tools
The problem with the rental tools is the lower ball joint
adaptor is not in the ones at Autozone or o'riley's But
the kit at o'riley's did have the upper installer. Don't think
either kit had the remover. But you can make one out of scrap pipe.
This Youtube is not bad even if it's an older leaf spring style. He
has a lot of good info.
What are you running for tires? My 06 had the same steering shutter on high-speed curves that you described with fierce attitude MTs. They were pretty good tires from my experience other then they were very stiff, New shocks and steering stabilizer helped but didn't completely eliminate it but it completely went away after changing to a different brand of tires. The i80/i35 cloverleaf used to be a white knuckle ride at 45 mph now I can run as fast as I want and the only hop and skip is from the rear end jumping on the bumps.
I'd recommend checking the steering components for wear then replace the shocks if they're old and then look at tires.
08-27-2015, 07:13 PM
