Erratic Steering Diagnosis Tip
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Laughing Gas
Joined: Aug 2008
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Erratic Steering Diagnosis Tip
This concerns my 1999 F250SD, and in general, 4x4 leaf-spring front suspension.
I was getting little jumps in my steeering, especially after making a corner. Front u-joint was binding. I speculate that after going thorugh a corner, the power steering was still working against the frozen u-joint for a short period of time and when things suddeny let go, there was a jump in the steering wheel.
I did do a Search here as well as a Google search, and there were many good suggestions, but they all seemed to involve raising the front wheels off the ground, disconnecting the tie-rod, etc.
To confirm which u-joint (if any) was causing the trouble, I first parked the truck with the wheels straight ahead. 4WD was not engaged, and the hubs were not locked.
Crawling underneath a little bit, I was able to rotate each front axle by hand. Grabbed a u-joint as best I could, and rotated shaft. Both shafts rotated easily. U-joint is "not working" so this doesn't really sort out u-joints, but gives you a feeling for how the axles rotate, and the normal amount of effort involved.
Next I started the enigne, and turned the steering wheel as if I was making a turn (helps to move forward when doing this..easier on tires, etc.).
Switched engine OFF, and back under the truck, I now found one axle still turned easily, but the one with the bad u-joint was bound up solid. Way to solid for me to move by hand. So the offending u-joint was identified.
On a final note, before I got it fixed, I did buy myself some time by locking the hubs, engaging 4WD and driving in a circle on the lawn. Not sure if this would always be a good idea, (depending on how bad the u-joint really is), but it my case it loosened the u-joint up enough I drove trouble free for a week before I got around to fixing it.
I was getting little jumps in my steeering, especially after making a corner. Front u-joint was binding. I speculate that after going thorugh a corner, the power steering was still working against the frozen u-joint for a short period of time and when things suddeny let go, there was a jump in the steering wheel.
I did do a Search here as well as a Google search, and there were many good suggestions, but they all seemed to involve raising the front wheels off the ground, disconnecting the tie-rod, etc.
To confirm which u-joint (if any) was causing the trouble, I first parked the truck with the wheels straight ahead. 4WD was not engaged, and the hubs were not locked.
Crawling underneath a little bit, I was able to rotate each front axle by hand. Grabbed a u-joint as best I could, and rotated shaft. Both shafts rotated easily. U-joint is "not working" so this doesn't really sort out u-joints, but gives you a feeling for how the axles rotate, and the normal amount of effort involved.
Next I started the enigne, and turned the steering wheel as if I was making a turn (helps to move forward when doing this..easier on tires, etc.).
Switched engine OFF, and back under the truck, I now found one axle still turned easily, but the one with the bad u-joint was bound up solid. Way to solid for me to move by hand. So the offending u-joint was identified.
On a final note, before I got it fixed, I did buy myself some time by locking the hubs, engaging 4WD and driving in a circle on the lawn. Not sure if this would always be a good idea, (depending on how bad the u-joint really is), but it my case it loosened the u-joint up enough I drove trouble free for a week before I got around to fixing it.
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