Luckily this happened while I was in a parking lot and not going down the highway. I had my wife and 5 kids in the van and was heading home from the store when I hear a loud popping sound and completely lose steering. I get out to see what happened and the bottom bolt on the steering gear has been pulled through the frame rail and the top two bolts were sheared off.

 

Wow, you and your family lucked out. Was it a rust issue? I completely lost steering in one of my vehicles at 65 mph when my steering shaft came apart. I also was lucky because it was a Sunday morning without any traffic and was able to come to a stop in the medium. The different scenarios of what could have happened if it would of happened under different circumstances still go through my head a couple years later.

 

No rust at all on the frame, gear or bolts. As much as I hate to say it, my next van is going to be a Toyota. I'm batting 0 for 3 on Fords so far.

 

Glad to hear everyone is okay Josh. Very strange, I've never heard of anything like that before. What is the history of this van? Has anyone worked on the steering? Almost seems like something that could have been screwed up by a shop replacing the gear.

 

There is more to this than meets the eye . What is the history of the van ? Something should have been obvious way before 1 bolt barely holding it together.

 

I bought the van 2 years ago with 132k miles and it was a 1 owner vehicle. Family with 5 kids, all services done by the same Ford dealer and all records on file and no steering work done. It has 156k now and no steering issues until now. Left the house to go to the store(1.5 miles away) and about a mile down the road the steering got really loose in a turn(had to turn the wheel twice as far as normal) so I eased it on to the store and parked. I turned the wheel to test the tightness and heard a small pop and then a loud pop and then had no steering. The frame had brittle failure on the inside, pulled the bottom bolt through the frame(when steering got loose) and the other two bolts broke when I turned the wheel sitting still.

 

Popeye arms?

 

Brittle Failure? Sounds like it has been wrecked in the past and the Frame Rail straightened out with a Torch......maybe.

 

Yeah sounds funny. Ford would be all over a serious steering gear issue due to the massive liability involved. I maintain a fleet of Fords with millions of miles of experience and have never had more than a comment or two from drivers that steering was lose feeling on high mile vans. Never seen a broken bolt on the gear and doubt that would happen without an aggravating factor (screwed up repair, extreme rust etc).

 

It may not have came across the way I meant, but I wasn't meaning a widespread safety issue. I was just meaning it pertaining to my situation. There are definitely no signs of repair from any kind of accident or repair.

 

I think there was something done previously or you were just unlucky. I'd weld on a plate and remount it.

 

That's what I plan on doing. We had been looking around to find something with more seating, so it was going to get traded off anyways. It only seats 7 and with baby number 6 on the way we need an extra seat.

Both front calipers went bad about a month or two ago and I replaced them. Then a brake line broke about a week ago and I ended up having to replace all the lines from the driver's door back. Now this steering problem.....

 

Finally got the van welded up and back on the road. I put about 200 miles on it down curvy roads to test it out before handing it back over to my wife. Seems to be doing just fine now.

 

The fix looks like it will outlast the rest of the van. Looks good!

 

I think I would have put the plate over all the holes just to play it safe