Hi Everyone, I have a 1989 F150, 4x4, 5speed manual, Short Box, Regular Cab.

I have an issue that I have just been throwing time and money at and I really need to track down the problem. Since I bought my truck the steering has always felt loose so I replaced the ball joints, tie rods, wheel bearings, steering gear box and got an alignment but my truck will still not drive straight. It tends to wander or kind of turn on it's own and when I try to steer the truck with the wheel sometimes a small turn of the wheel makes the truck do nothing or it makes it do a lot. I recently drove my truck up to Vermont from Tennessee for Thanksgiving and I really need this fixed, the 2,000+ miles I drove was down right dangerous!

I should also note that when I was changing the ball joints I also added Rough Country leveling springs which raise the front end about 1.5 inches. To compensate for that I got Moog camber bushings which can adjust the camber and caster and my alignment shop was able to put everything back within specification. I also tried adjusting the rebuild steering gearbox and it doesn't seem to help anything.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!
Alex

 

Have you inspected the flex joint in the steer shaft itself, these sometimes wear and get quite loose.

 

I checked the steering shaft U-Joint and it is tight. When the truck is stationary and I turn the wheel everything looks to be very tight and no slop in the system. One thing to note is when I turn the wheel lock to lock the the whole truck does lean from side to side, is this normal? When I turn the steering wheel all the way to the right the truck leans to the left a little bit and when I turn the wheel all the way to the left, the truck leans to the right a little bit.

 

Yes the TTB front suspension has some quirks. Did you inspect the front drive axle u-joints when the front end was apart? If these are seized up the steering will tend to jump even when in 2wd as the joint resists being flexed. You can test these now without taking anything apart, jack up the front end and put it on stands, make sure the t-case in in 2wd. Now lock a hub and spin that wheel, when it's pointed straight forward it will spin fine but is it the smooth when the wheels are turned at an angle? If not that u-joint is seized and needs to be replaced, this is real common on these trucks as 4wd is seldom used so these joints tend to dry out and seize long before they wear out.

 

If all that checks out, double check the alignment specs. My truck drives like you've described if the toe is set at zero or out. Needs toed in a little bit.

 

Thanks for the tip. In order to replace the ball joints I had to remove the drive shafts and I was considering replacing the U-Joints so I checked to see if there was any play and there wasn't so I don't think it was that but I will definitely double check the way you described I am willing to double check or even triple check things to get this fixed.

 

I checked the toe on my alignment that was done November 19th and it says the toe is positive 0.03 degrees. To me that is virtually zero but I'm no expert on alignments or suspension stuff. What do you think I should ask the alignment shop to put the toe at? According to their system the tolerance limits are positive 0.16 degrees and negative 0.10 degrees. Should I ask them to put the toe at positive 0.15 degrees? That would still be in spec. Do you think that's enough? I go to NTB for alignments by the way so not sure they know what the toe should be at.

 

0.03 degrees sounds like not enough to me. I use a tape measure & do it myself, aiming for 1/8" toe-in seems to work well. I'm not sure what that is in degrees, probably around 0.15 though.

 

It wouldn’t be that there was noticeable slop in the u-joint. The issue is that the joint is too stiff. It actually caused the steering wheel to jerk out of my hand and the truck to pull into the other lane. And yes just as Conanski said that was with the hubs unlocked.

 

The thing to check is not the u-joint but the intermediate shaft. This is the collapsible part of the steering system and the slop can grow in this part over time, so if the intermediate shaft is original it has had a lot of time to wear down. You need to look at right where the nesting shafts come together and watch how much tolerance there is at that point when moving the steering wheel. On mine, I was amazed how much the wheel and upper shaft moved before the lower shaft did. I replaced mine with a Ford part, but Borgeson also makes them.

 

Could also check frame for cracks, around gear box mounting holes are.

 

Okay everyone I got an alignment on my truck and I had them add some toe. The toe on both sides is now in 0.08 degrees for a total toe of 0.16 degrees which is just on the edge of being in spec. The truck drives exactly the same as it did before. I cannot tell any difference. I should let you guys know that I put leveling springs on the truck and added those two piece adjustable camber/caster bushings from Moog, They are supposed to fix the caster and camber. The alignment shop adjusted them so that the camber would be in but the caster is still out by over a degree because of the lift from the leveling springs. They said that the camber/caster bushings were adjusted to the max available caster. I think the problem might be the caster. Does anyone have any idea how to get the caster in spec? Does this alignment shop just not know what they are doing?