I just noticed when I left work today that the hub on the passenger side, btw having this trouble when turning right, only has 2 of 3 visible screws. It also has what looks like grease/dirt buildup on the outside but the other side looks nktmal

 

My u-joints were binding and I replaced them. After that is when the symptoms started. Also getting some kind or rubbing noise when I turn right, but that may be a different issue.

 

Mine didn't show any play either. I checked them, the garage checked them (3 different times), they never showed excessive play. That's why I said you have to pull them to check them.

 

My problem was the axil u-joint, and I couldnt tell until I took in off the truck. It would sieze up randomly.But always during a turn.I did find out you could stop the truck and turn the wheel all the way left all the way right several times and it would free things up temporary I would do this at every stop sign or light and it would not freeze up as often. It has been right at three months since I changed the u-joints and I have had no issue since, I drive my truck daily. By the way the alingment shop could not find problem, they said it must be my tires.So save your money there.

 

Thank you for updating us Greentree as this is the best type of information that can be garnered from forums like FTE, actual real world experience, reps given and i am glad you resloved your issue.

 

*must be the tires* hmmm funny thing is I just changed my wheels over to the ones with 245s instead of 265s and that actually have decent tread on them, off road/snows, And the symptoms have been significantly reduced although still noticeable if you're looking for them. This second set also weighs noticeably less than the one I took off, that probably has something to do with it

 

low and behold, the problem has returned. It didnt wait long either, I just didnt get up here to post it. I'm going to buy the U joints and replace them one by one to see what's what. Sounds like a pain in the *** even to me who is suggesting the plan of attack, and maybe for the price of a U joint I should just replace all of them instead of returning the ones I dont use. Out of curiousity I still want to know which one it is though, I guess total replacement is still TBD. Do you guys have any preference between greaseable vs no grease joints? I know some who swear by one and curse the other for both sides.

 

Just deleted my post accidentally.....

condensed version:
turned left for u turn, had to grab steering wheel and lean across cab to get wheel to turn past a bind back to the right. Felt like a knuckling u joint. Parked her in the garage, took of the cap with the hub lock dial, found something that intuition told me wasnt right. took the other cap off to confirm. below are some pictures of what I found

this is with the outer gear rings still in:



These are a couple with them removed




The other hub didnt have grease everywhere and the plastic cap that the spring sits in was not fixed to the inner assembly anymore but it was still intact otherwise. You can see it better in the first picture but what I am going to call the outer shaft for now (someone please clarify the technical name if it is something different) is not centered. when I took the outer gears out you could grab the outer shaft and rotate it pretty much any direction as if it were in a ball joint, but it would return to the same position when you let go. with the truck running, power steering is the only way you could turn the wheel right, you can see the shaft move, bind, and then jump to a different position, and then do the reverse when you turn the wheel back the other direction. I figured, Ok, U joint and I'm back in business. to get by until I could get to putting the u joint in, I put the inner asseble from the plastic cap to the outer gear back into the hub all in one piece. then I put the cap in "lock", lined up the gear teeth and pushed in the gear that engages when you lock the hubs, and screwed the cap back on. This gave the outer shaft end support on all sides so it would have to stay on the rotational axis, but even then there was some play. I drove for say 5 days, 20 miles a day like this. I know it isnt ideal, but neither is not being able to turn right. Now I could turn right, but not without resistance. Last night I got around to doing the u joint, dropped the typicical f bombs upon reaching the first snap ring and when trying to figure out how to get the innermost part of the hub off thats behind the rotor, pulled the axle shaft, had one hell of a caveman time getting the old u joint out, installed the new one, reverse procedure, and everything should be rockin and rollin right? wrong. same play in the outer shaft end as before. buttoned up and went for a ride, SMALL improvement in steering, however the same problem exists. I only replaced the outer u joint on the passenger side. could it be a different u joint causing this problem? the outer wheel bearing looked good, but there's another one closer to the center of the axle that doesnt come out as easily right? could it be going bad? it seems to me something is worn out and not keeping the shaft in the right planes, I'm just not sure what exactly it is now.

 

Does your truck have sealed bearings or ones that you can service?

 

If you jack the truck up and place your hands top and bottom and wiggle in and out alternating top to bottom do you get any movement? How did the needle bearings in the spindle look when you removed the axle to do the u-joints?

 

I thought I updated my sig...guess I didnt. its a 94 F250 IDI Turbo, has the D50 IFS. As far as the bearings being servicable or not, do you mean the wheel bearings? I've got the shop manuals for the 86 model year for my bronco at home, but they seem to apply pretty well to this truck too. The bearing that came out when I took the hub off was called "cone and roller" No movement from the top and bottom, ball joints are greased up and good to go. I didnt look at the needle bearings. I've seen them mentioned but I dont even think I know if I saw them or not. Mostly because I wasnt looking for them, but I may recall what they looked like if i know what they are. I'll look that up and see if I remember seeing them.

EDIT: also just realizing that somehow I ended up in the 6.0 powerstroke forum...so I may be looking in the wrong place.