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Looking for a solution to my problem new to the page and my truck but upon driving my truck my steering wheel can start off straight with your hand sitting at 12:00 on the steering wheel you turn to the right and your hand will go from 12:00 to 3:00 ish before it starts actually turning only thing that throws me off is it does not d this to the left turning left is not a problem anyone dealt with this problem yet?
Truck is a 1997 7.3 4x4
I would put your front end on blocks, and test the steering by having someone turn the steering wheel while you look for “slop” you’ll have to have the engine running, so make dang sure the parking brake is on and your blocks are bomb-proof!
with someone in driver seat, engine off, wiggling wheel back n forth
check pan hard for any slop side to side
check the tie rods for slop and up down motion
check pitman ball for wear and make sure nut is tight and thread locked
check steering box is bolted tight
check ujoints/rag joint
lift front end up and block axles
check wheel bearings for play
check ball joints for wear with a big pry bar under tire, any up down movement is slop
remove tie rods to knuckles and hand move each and turn axle 90 and test again then put jack pad under tire to add up pressure and test again for bind
You may have some roll in your steering. The way pur tie rods and such are designed allows the linkage to roll a bit before catching and tland doing the designed turning.
How you can relieve this is to go to you outter tie rods at each wheel. Loosen the sleeve and roll one side all the way forward and the other side all the way back. So that the end result is your tie rod linkage doesn't have the ability to roll anymore.
go to you outter tie rods at each wheel. Loosen the sleeve and roll one side all the way forward and the other side all the way back. So that the end result is your tie rod linkage doesn't have the ability to roll anymore.
You may have some roll in your steering. The way pur tie rods and such are designed allows the linkage to roll a bit before catching and tland doing the designed turning.
How you can relieve this is to go to you outter tie rods at each wheel. Loosen the sleeve and roll one side all the way forward and the other side all the way back. So that the end result is your tie rod linkage doesn't have the ability to roll anymore.
You could have a worn steering box. That will be play.
Also, if it's a 350, slop in the front spring shackles adds play. Even if the front spring shackles and panhard (track) bar bushings are new and tight, because of the forward-shackle design, turning the steering wheel tends to shift the axle sideways some before turning the wheels. Slop in the spring shackles (or their bushings) or panhard bushings just makes it worse. On a 250, the control arms positively locate the wheels side-to-side, so there is no trackbar and the spring shackles don't come into play for steering.