I went to take the truck out yesterday ('77 F250 4x4) and noticed after I pulled out from in front of my house that it felt almost like the power steering wasn't working. It's hard to turn the wheel but then it will get easy for a second and go back to being hard to turn again. Everything looks ok (nothing appears broken and no leaks) so I'm thinking it's probably the steering box or the power steering pump, but I'm doubtful on the latter.

The truck was fine when I drove it a couple of days before, so I'm kind of stumped. I talked to a mechanic friend of mine and he's putting his money on it being the steering box. Any ideas?

Where could I get a steering box? I looked around a little bit and didn't have any luck. Is this going to be a junk yard only part?

I really need to get this fixed so I can get the truck smogged. I finally got it running and then this happens the next time I take it out. This thing is being a pain in the ***.

 

Is this an early year '77 with power assist steering or a late year '77 with integral power steering?

 

Well, on the bright side there are really only two components to deal with.

The pump does have enough fluid, right?

It sounds like air in the system initially but ya didn't crack open the system. Hmmm....Try this... remove the PS pump V-belt and take it for a drive with manual steering... if the tightness returns then it is the steering box (which you can get from your local parts store but a quality unit from Benchwork Steering is TONS better). If it steers normally (read, heavy) then the likely culprit is the pump... could be a bad internal seal since it feels is intermittent.

The above doesn't cost anything but a little time.

2x with manual steering. I retrofitted a 79 Bronco PS system to my 73 with 35s. Worse yet when I bought it, the PO had installed a dumbazz 13-inch steering wheel. 'Talk about a pain!

 

Early '77, built in Nov '76 I think.

The pump does have enough fluid. I'm free after work tomorrow so I'll mess with it then and see what happens.

 

It may very well be the steering box, if so i suggest a replacement unit from Red-head steering gears in WA. state, if the box checks out ok i'd suspect your control valve is at fault.

here's some informative reading...

http://www.stangerssite.com/steeringsysteminfo.html

 

I'll check that site out.

BTW, do you guys think it's safe to drive the truck like this? I'm just wondering if it's "safe" to run it to the smog place that's 2 miles from where I live. I could cut through neighborhoods for most of the trip (making it longer though) to keep the speeds down. I'm just not sure if there could be some kind of failure to cause me to totally lose steering. Right now, I'm thinking it's a bad idea but if there's not to much to worry about I may go for it.

edit: I forgot that it's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I may have to wait until the weekend to mess with the truck.