Hi
I think I know the answer, but figure I'd double check right quick & the video might help others.
My steering is loose, the truck sorta follows the ruts in the road if that makes sense. Pretty sure I've replaced everything up front except for the pitman arm (which seems fine) including ball joints.
I replaced steering box with a reman'd unit.
After all this it was still loose. I've also tightened up the steering box, which made steering tighter but there is still play and road wandering.
Before I buy a new steering unit and replace again, figured I'd double check. I've double checked all the steering linkages and such, they all seem fine.
There seems to be play where the rag joint meets the box, the play being in the box. I don't see anything else loose with the steering column. The amount of play seems to match the play from the steering wheel.

Very short video here



If anyone has advice other than to replace with new steering box please let me know.

Thanks!

 

I WAS having the same problem then put on quality tires alignment checked, New pitman arm , the original had miniscule play, mechanic said everything tight as New.. AND I still have the same problem. Nobody has an answer... I'll follow this thread
Good luck...

 

Dude that steering box is TRASH depending on the brand and where you got it I'd return it for a refund if not I'd go exchange. But personally I'd get my money back and buy a better remanufactured unit. I installed a A1cardon in my 2004 f350 and have had great luck with it so far.


Now on to steering wonder, ANY play up/down left/right at any joint will cause a wonder. None maintained tie rod ends (greased once a year or never) even though might seem tight could be locked up due to lack of grease. Same goes for the axle ujoint, stocks are non greasable and again might seem fine looking at it BUT if they are dried out will stick and make the truck pull or wonder. Also the steering box with any excess play is TRASH. Another problem area is the steering shaft from the wheel. The ujoints go bad and most dont check them and figure it's the ball joints or tie rod ends.

Brake pins not lubricated and causing the caliper to stick will cause wondering or pulling. Same goes for a bad unit bearing

I now have 176k on my 2004 f350 and just replaced all the factory tie rod ends with new Ford units from rock auto. Upper tie rod at pitman arm just started to get some play when I was doing my mo thly greasing (would have lasted longer except the stock boot split uears ago and I had a aftermarket boot from napa on it which didnt fit the same as the stock Ford boot) even though I didnt need all four tie rod ends I have 176k on the truck and decided to replace all at once since I would have to have an alignment afterwards. At 40k stock nongreasable ballhoints went out, put moogs in it and again grease once a month and they are still going strong. Two years ago I finally changed out the factory unit bearings, passenger side developed play (again I found it while I was doing my yearly brake pin greasing and cleaning )

Basically I maintain my truck and catch a problem while it's very minimal and fix it immediately. 176k and the old girl is still going strong and out works these new 2019 sissy pampered soccer mom trucks

 

SuperDutyScaler

Thanks for the confirmation! Yeah I forget the issue that led me to this advanced auto reman'd unit, lack of time or something, not my normal choice. And with all the issues on reman'd I'll just buy a new one. As for the rest, all of the tie rods, u joints, ball joints are only a few months old and moogs. I can easily justify the money for steering/braking safety type stuff, although my wife would rather get the life insurance I'm sure.

As far as I can tell the steering shaft is solid.

Appreciate the advice. And for what its worth, this is an 04 f450 with about 230K.

thx!
Matt

 

Is it 2ws or 4wd?
And its the same box as my f350, I went A1cardon because its suppose to be a quality reman, and 2 napa had the best price and they are nation wide so if I'm anywhere and have a problem I can just walk into any napa and swap it out for free.
And even a Ford box isnt the greatest, guys here have installed ones and had issues on the first drive afterwards

 

Its 4WD. A1Cardon seems to be high quality, that's actually the reman I wanted but think I couldn't find one fast enough. At this point I"d rather pay the extra $200 with the theory I won't have to do it again. It took a fair amount of cursing to get the box back in place if I recall correctly. Thx again!

 

When the OP said he replaced "everything", did that include the steering damper? The loose steering and wander sure sound like the damper is shot. Easy to find out by install of a new one. I had the same issues and installed a Monroe unit and that fixed the loose steering and wheel/road wander issues. Not touting Monroe but it and the Rancho dampers were the only ones I could find in stock local.

 

Hi

Yep, damper replaced too (shocks as well). Sorta forgotten everything I replaced, sorry for my half-arsed post there. I assume its working correctly, didn't really double check this little guy though.
I went ahead with a new box, hopefully that'll do the trick.

Thanks!

 

Did you adjust the gear box or just install it and call it good?

 

Both! Adjusting it helped just a little bit but not enough.

 

Man do I feel your pain. I replaced ALL steering components on my front end and having the same issue. Started a thread on it too. .. steering damper, tire rod ends, ball joints shocks, fresh Motorcraft remanufactured steering box, new tires, new brakes and rotors, down the line. I have play exactly the same place you do. Only thing I can figure is at the box. Soo frustrating. That box was a royal pain the first time. Not looking forward to doing it again...

i also had bad atf in my power steering that a second flush took care of and made a world of difference but there is still the play you talk about. Soooo many people try to tell me to live with it but it is NOT normal. If They still actually made brand new boxes I would pay $500 just to make sure it was done with. I think alleys people that are remanufacturing them are just changing out seals and we’re left with Worn gears on the inside. I have seen and talk to so many people with the same problem getting them from pretty much every manufacture it seems hit or miss. I know people that have gotten three or four different boxes even from redhead or Bluetop or whoever before they got one that was proper.


sound familiar???
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ering-box.html

 

I had to adjust my OEM unit, I had around 3" of play in the steering, I would adjust about 1/4 turn, then take it and drive it for a couple of days, then do another 1/4 turn adjustment, drive it for a couple of days. I did a total of 3 - 1/4 turn adjustments, and it took out 98% of the steering slop. If you think you have to change out the gear box again, there would be no harm in trying to re-adjust it first.

 

I did not have good luck with my A1 Cardone reman unit. It lasted about a year before it started leaking. I replaced it with a Blue-Top and was very happy with it.

I remember reading a thread in the 7.3L forum about play in the steering column from worn out bushings.

 

Yeah sounds familiar! I've seen a lot of comments around reman'd boxes not being overly reman'd, just new seals and such.
I feel fairly confident its the box, due to what's shown in the video. I was turning the steering shaft by hand, the play appears to be in the box vs. the rag joint or elsewhere on the steering shaft. For yours, if you haven't, perhaps check the rag joint and anything else you can see on the shaft. I've seen somewhere there might be a steering wheel (or shaft) bushing somewhere. If in my video the box wasn't moving, I would have suspected something between the box and the wheel. The rag joint seemed solid to me. I found a new box on rockauto, I feel like when I swapped this the first time I could not find a new box, but I can't totally recall. Rockauto box new was 350$ish. Hoping it does the trick, will find out in a couple weeks. And yeah, putting that box back in was a challenge for by gogo gadget arms, a helper would have come in handy! Looks simple but was a balancing act for sure.

 

I was not aware of anyone who manufactures new steering gear boxes for our trucks.

Looking at Rock Auto there are two new steering gears offered. Their price is in the ballpark of a name brand remanufactured unit. I'm not drawing any conclusions, just making a comparison.