Hello all,


I have a strange problem with the steering of my 02 7.3l F350 SRW 4x4. The alignment is dead on and checked three times over. It has 140k miles and all of the steering components feel solid with no play and the ball joints are new.


Symptoms:


1. when driving the and un even road is encountered, the wheels will track to the right and begin a swaying or fishtailing oscillation. it is more noticeable at higher speed and even more when towing a 3500lbs boat. To stop the action I must let my hand off the wheel and gas or it will get stronger and I am sure it would put me in the ditch.


2. the steering feels hyper sensitive an I have to over correct. If I correct to much it will begin to fishtail


3. On un-even roads the truck will want to drift to the low side. and then when correcting it will sometimes cause a fishtailing oscillation.


4. Steering sometimes feels spongy.




I had a master tech from Ford to a check ride with me and one of hic comment's was it could be a steering box going bad. I have also herd the same from other sources but I wanted to throw this problem up here and see if any of you have encountered this problem.




I am open to try any ideas.




Thanks

 

Is the truck stock or lifted?
What condition are your shocks and steering stabilizer in? Have you checked the suspension bushings and track bar?

 

The truck is stock except for the HanKook MT tires. The shocks are a little old and are probably due for replacement. All of the bushings and track bar feel good

 

Steering box is a very common problem. Check out Redhead steering they removed the slop from my steering box. Made a big difference

 

I am thinking steering Box from what the Ford tech said and you saying the same thing. I have herd of Red Head as being top shelf product.


From My searching, I have heard that the steering box has a slow failure making the steering slowly get worse.


If anyone agrees let me know.

 

From what you've said, I'd lean towards the steering box as well. Just an off chance, I've never seen it on a newer Ford, check the steering box mounting point for cracks.

I've seen steering boxes go both ways, a slow degradation over time and a catastrophic failure. Of course the catastrophic failure had some other contributing factors.