Hey guys, I noticed a weird feel in my steering wheel as I pulled into my driveway. Feeling reminded me of a bad idler arm in one of these old 60's Mustangs I play with. Anyway I had my wife get into truck and told her to move steering wheel slightly while I look underneath for problem. Soon as I got under front of truck she said "look at the steering wheel!" I raised back up and it was like steering wheel was moving an inch or so each way all on its own! Weird.

Do I need an exorcist or what?

 

56 views and no replies, so I guess this isn't something major (expensive) that happens in all these. That's good news. I was afraid I'd get all sorts of replies like "That's the dreaded '08 F350 steering box failure that cost $2k to fix!"


ps - and when I said "steering wheel moved back and forth on its own" I meant it was moving my wife's hand. Not just some free play due to a worn rag joint for example.

 

Drove over to the Ford dealership and they advised "Not safe to drive!" and kept it. Said they will be able to get to it in a couple of days. Once I find out I'll let you know what it is.


By the way I forgot to mention in my first post this is a F350 Super Crew dually 4 wheel drive.

 

 

I kinda did - " Do I need an exorcist or what? " but I'll admit not the best way to ask for advice.

And thanks for the response seville009.

" I’ve never seen anyone mention something like this in the 10+ years I’ve been reading this forum" figures I'd be the first with such an oddball symptom!

Anyway with any luck I'll soon know what caused this...and I'll let you know!

 

Never heard of it either, or this (this is an F-150, not a SD):


I'm clueless on this one. Would think something in the power steering pump or steering box, but the motor isn't even running.

 

Yeah, that is maybe relevant to what mine was doing. In my SD case the steering wheel would move right about 1-2 inches, then go left about the same distance. My truck was running though. Strange.

 

Turned out to be a loose (cracked?) hex nut on the front axle. They just replaced the nut and a loose dust boot along with using some thread lock. I think I heard them say the nut is a "nylon" nut and that seems a little concerning to me. Hopefully I heard them wrong!

Of course while they were in there they found my ball joints to be worn and I had them replaced also.

I told you I'd let you know, so there is the info.

 

08' F350 here as well(RCLB 5.4)Have the exact same issue. If i turn the steering wheel and release any pressure it jerks backs and forth significantly. Like 2" of movement. Does it sitting still so figured it was hydraulic related. Was going to install a new pump, and gear box if need be. Exactly what nut was it?

 

The paperwork says ---


1 *W520117*S441 NUT - HEX - RH thread $9.75


Hope this helps. Maybe have your parts guy look it up and then he can show you an exploded view of front axle, so you can see where it goes. Good luck!

 

Will have to see if the dealer knows anything.Its definitely a strange issue thats been plaguing me for awhile and I just cant wrap my head around how a single nut could cause it. Would suck to throw a gearbox in it and have the same problem.

I also ruled out balljoints entirely today, greased them and disconnected the tierods. Put the front wheels down on alignment turn plates and turned both front wheels with about 120 ftlbs of pressure each with zero binding.

 

I believe they said it was here. But I'm not 100% positive, sorry. I didn't fix it myself, paid local Ford dealer to fix.
This is from in front of drivers side front tire. Good luck!

 

Inspected every single suspension nut. I did the entire front end a month ago, but re torqued everything including the spindle nut at the pitman arm. I dug a little deeper on how to diagnose power steering pressures and gear box operation. Found the spool valve to be sticking. Replaced with a redhead steering box that I had bought already and it did the trick!