Hello, I have a 2018 F250 with right about 31k on it, I’ve been fighting a lot of bump steer problems for the last 15k miles. All the usual things have been checked by myself and multiple dealerships. Today I noticed that the steering box makes a clunking noise when you turn the wheel with the truck off. I took it to the dealership and they told me it is normal for the gears to smack in these steering boxes. I’m going to try to attach a video of the noise. I just would like to know if this is normal or the dealer is BSing me. Thank you all.

Do you get any kind of metallic feed back or a “felt” rattle through the steering wheel while driving over imperfections in the road?

Yes, that’s exactly what happens. Any minor bump in the road will make the steering wheel twitch back and forth. I currently have fox 2.0 duals on the front with a fox 2.0 in the stock location as well. It doesn’t really have a problem on very large bumps, it’s the little bumps that are very annoying.

You said all of the usual things, So I’m presuming there is no play anywhere. What are your alignment specs?

Man i have the exact same problem! I am well versed and can find nothing truely “out of spec”. I have had multiple steering parts replaced to no avail. The dealership is of 0 help at this point. The issue has to either be in the steering box or in the lower intermediate shaft. I have been talking to a guy on here via PM who has had the same problem. He had his intermediate shaft replaced after getting a ford field engineer involved and it solved the rattle problem. Sit in your truck and hold the steering wheel. Pop your hood and have someone reach down and have them shake the steering shaft up and down and side to side. You will more than likely feel the rattle through the steering wheel. I am tired of dealing with the dealership so i went ahead and ordered a new lower intermediate shaft. There is a new part number which means they have changed something in the shaft. It has not shipped yet and i am chomping at the bit to get it installed. If this does not fix the issue, the steering box is the only other thing it could be. I talked to the dealership about checking the lash / adjusting the steering box, and they will not do it. Mine clanks like yours does, and i have checked umpteen trillion other superdutys and they all clank like yours does in the video. Some are even worse. Mine started at about 4500 miles and i have been living with it for 4k miles. It drives me frigging CRAZY! Feels like something is loose while i am driving. Mine is worse on days where the temp is over 50 or if i drive for an extended period of time and everything heats up. Once i install the new shaft i will report back on this thread about my findings. If the shaft does not fix the issue i am going to push hard on ford to replace the steering box. If you do not have odd tire wear the issue is not a bad suspension part, its something in the steering before the pitman arm. I will let you know what i find.

I would like to add one more thing here. Ifn’ you do get a wild *** hair and you tighten the adjuster on the steering box, you be very careful. If you over tighten it, the teeth will wear out rapidly. You can also bind them so bad that they will catch and if that happens while your driving people can get hurt. The procedure for measuring lash involves removing the box and checking resistance with a beam style torque wrench. It is not overly difficult to do, but it is time consuming, and you need to find out what fords specs are before going after it. The other option, which is the one most people use, is to jack up the front end of your truck and remove your steering damper. Make very small adjustments, checking the resistance in the wheel while cutting it lock to lock after each adjustment. Personally when i have adjusted them in the past, i pop the joint off at the end of the pitman arm. I feel like is a little more accurate to check it that way. You want 0 binding. And VERY little if any play when you wiggle the pitman arm end back and forh. Its a fine line. Regardless, if the problem is ultimately slop in these boxes with so few miles not many miles will be had out of them in the long run.

Let me know how the intermediate shaft works out. I had my girlfriend pull side to side on it and can definitely feel it in the wheel. As far as caster I’m currently at 3.2 L and 3.6 R. I’ve had it as high as 7* with no change except for very heavy steering. I do not have a leveling kit installed. All stock except for shocks and stabilizers.

Will do. I ordered the part from Tasca 5 days ago, and it still has not shipped. I have never ordered anything from them before, so i’m not sure of their business practices, but i feel like 4 days to ship seems excessive. (Im not including sunday or today since its still early) if i dont hear anything from them by this afternoon i am going to reach out to them concerning the status of my order. Ford seems to have a national backorder problem with alot of parts from time to time, and i hope thats not the case.

Sure!

Yes sir no problem. Are you having the rattle as well?

Have you tried adjusting the ATS? Ive never had the opportunity to play with one, so im out on adjustment suggestions. I know there is a thread on here pertaining to the ATS. It may be woth getting on there and asking what setting the guys are running.