Took the my F250 on a 700 mile RT to SoCal from NorCal yesterday.

"Loose steering" has been a problem w/my truck for awhile and the drive reminded me that "something" needs to be done about it.

There's a slight delay in response between turning the wheel and direction change. I can anticipate this pretty well but the truck does NOT respond well to 2 quick changes in direction -- like a quick left right -- which can be unsettling to the driver (me) and the truck when doing it at speed.

Took it to a shop once to have it checked out but the guy just looked at it while it was on the ground, played w/the steering wheel a bit and just shook his head -- no clue. I don't think it's the steering box. My "guess" is worn ball joints. If so, I'd probably want to change the tie rods too. What do you guys think?

Any suggestions to what to look for would be welcomed, as well as any suggested aftermarket replacements to the suspension that would make it better/strong than just an OEM swap.

 

grab the tie rod with both hands and see how loose it is, especially near the grease fitting, sometimes it's alot easier with two people. One person moving the steering wheel and the other watching the components.. You might just need to replace this.



If it's the steering box you can tighten it. Do a quick search on the forum - it is a pretty simple procedure. I had to do it on my Excursion, but it's not a 100% fix and you must be extremely careful not to over tighten. I believe the instructions say only to adjust 1/4 turn at a time then test drive. If it is your steering box the best replacement is the redhead steering box.

here's a link that has some info on tightening the stock box:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-the-road.html

 

Here is the link to the red head steering box if you need to go that route:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...ml#post7580464

 

Thanks for the info, White Buffalo.

Taking the truck into a shop in a couple of days to check it out. Too lazy to jack it up myself; not that I'd know exactly what to do to figure out the problem if I did. They're not charging me anything to do that.

We'll see what the ball joints/tie rods look like then.

 

The diagnosis is worn out upper/lower ball joints -- mainly on the driver's side, less so on the passenger side. Steering box only requires a minor adjustment. Tie rods are fine. There are over 215k miles on the truck and it just looks like normal wear and tear.

Going let the shop replace all of ball joints and adjust the steering box at the same time, which hould solve the problem.

 

Got all 4 ball joints replaced and the steering box adjusted today.

The car drives like an entirely different truck! Very little play in the steering wheel now and I can do a quick left/right or right/left change in direction w/o any wobble or delay in the transition.

The ball joint replacement also solved another previously undiagnosed problem. Before the replacement, I would get a "grinding" noise when applying the brakes, which sounded like the pads were worn out and were grinding on the rotors. Had someone check the brakes and they were fine; lots of meat on the pads and no rotor scoring.

Well, apparently, the ball joints on the driver's side were SO loose that that when I braked, it would cause the ball joints and/or brake assembly to "vibrate" which caused the grinding noise. That noise is all gone now that the ball joints have been replaced.

It's a much safer truck to drive now and should have taken care of this a LONG time ago.

 

Very nice.......I had the same ball joint problem 2 years ago. drove me batty for a month or two.

 

The truck is fine around town but, after driving the truck on the freeway for 140 miles this past week, I still noticed a bit too much play in the steering wheel for my taste.

The steering box was "adjusted" when the ball joints were replaced. So, I'm probably going to buy and install new steering gear box, as well, in hopes that this will finally "fix" my loose steering problem. The Redtop steering gear box looks really well made but it's very pricey at $356. So, I may just go w/a standard reconditioned unit.

I've also read that a steering stabilizer may solve the problem, but I don't think the stabilizer will help w/the play because it's mainly designed to reduce wheel wobble.

Don't recall if my F250 has a stabilizer on it or not. Will have to look tomorrow morning. If there is one, I may replace it and if there isn't one, I may add one, even if it doesn't affect steering wheel play, just to cover all the bases.

 

Check the bushings on the track bar. They will look good just looking at them. You need to take it off to really see if the bushings are bad because you can not see between the mount and bar. the front axle will travel from side to side while turning. here is my post on this.. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post13065286

 

Hey SwingShift,

Where in Cali do you live? We have a great group of us here on the forum and we get together in morgan hill every now and then and work on our trucks and help each other out. We are tentatively looking at a date in may for the next one.

Now to answer some questions. My truck has 225k on her. I have done ball joints steering stabilizer, tie rod ends, track bar bushings, sway bar bushings and all of those things made my steering just a bit better. HOWEVER what these trucks are known for is what we like to call 'superduty steering wonder' they all do it until... You get a redhead steering box. Like I said all other things help and should be done especially once your over 200k but once again the one final FIX is the redhead. I did mine about 500 miles ago and WOW. I was so frustrated with the wonder that I was convinced that not even the redhead would fix it, but it did. So I highly recommend doing it when you can. Heres the downside, the box is about $400 PLUS a $300 core so you have to be able to throw $700 out the window until you get your box and send them your core, then they inspect it and get you your money back. (side note when you send them your core, make sure you get the tracking number for it so that you can see when it arrives there. Call them two days after they receive it and make sure they get you your core deposit back sooner then later.) Redhead is great company but sometimes slacks on returning core charges.

 

Where abouts in SoCal are you? If you're close I can meet up and take a look.

 

I live in Brentwood in East Contra Costa County (not the Brentwood in SoCal) about 75 miles (1 1/2 hrs) from Morgan Hill. Not too far for me to drive there, but not that convenient either but let me know when the next "meet" is and I'll see if I can make it or not.


I can afford the Redhead, but I've been throwing a lot of $ at the 2008 BMW 335i that I bought recently and was hoping to cut back a bit on the automotive expenses.

On the other hand, I really haven't had to spend much money for repairs or maintenance on the F250, except for oil changes and a set of Toyo Open Country tires. Most of the $ I've spent on the truck have been for extras, like a 55 gal Titan tank, a Curt front hitch, a rear SuperHitch, RoadMaster ActiveSupension leaf-helper springs, a Rhino spray liner, a rubber bed mat an Extang Solid Fold tonneau cover, some engine gauges (need to add one to measure boost), a Tekonsha brake controller and a wireless rear camera (for when I'm hauling my camper).

So, another $500 or so on top of the $500 for the ball joint work really isn't all that much. There's no mention of the core charge on Redhead's site but I'll call them to confirm the cost/charges. Do they pay for shipping to/from their "factory?" Probably not.

Just looked at my truck this morning and it has dual stabilizers on it already. Not sure if it's stock or aftermarket; can't see any logo but they look like their due for a change too. Looks like a simple install that I can do myself if I just swap out the stabilizers, unlike the steering gear box which I'll probably let a shop mechanic handle.

 

The bushings on the track bar looked cracked and worn out BUT there are some HUGE bolts holding it on. So, I'll probably let the mechanic replace it w/the steering box when I get that done.

Quite a variety of them on Amazon, eBay and other sites BUT I'm pretty impressed with this one: Precision Metal Fab's Monster Adjustable Track Bar. They also have a pricey but very impressive looking Dual Stabilizer Kit that appeals to me as well. May be overkill to get these at 2-3x's the price for a stock equivalent.

What do you guys think of them vs. these cheaper OEM quality parts which are less beefy but more similar to what's on the truck now: Skyjacker 9299 Dual Stabilizer Kit and Adjustable Track Bar?

 

Just spoke w/Redhead this morning. Their core charge is $200 and they charge $28 for shipping and will include a return shipping label for the same pricel So total cost for one of their gear boxes would be $356 + $52 or $408 to me. Going to get some comparative quotes from my mechanic for the gear box, track bar and stabilizers (plus labor) later today.

Update:

My mechanic checked the track bar and, even though it has some visible surface cracking, he says that it's solid; he inspected it and saw no movement whatsoever. He also said that, unless I'm feeling any wheel bump or wobble (and I'm not, that the stabilizers are probably fine as well). Noticed that one of the stabilizer rod covers was torn and when I looked at the rod it was shiny and clean w/o any obvious leakage; just ziptied the torn cover back on.

So, I'm just going to focus on replacing the steering gear box. His quote was for $585 for an A1 Cardone remfg'd box, fluids, alignment and labor. $295 for labor, fluids and alignment alone. So, going w/the Redhead will cost me about $700 total. Am going to "think" about it for a week or so, but will probably go w/the Readhead, even though it costs more, because I've read some very negative comments about the Cardone and only good ones about the Redhead.

 

Sounds good, there is another loose steering thread near the top of the forum and you can read on there that someone has gone through 3 remanned steering boxes from AutoZone or orielys... Its not worth saving some money...