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Long story short I bought a 99 f250 7.3 with a 6inch lift and mud tires previous owner obviously didn’t treat the truck well steering was loose when I bought it has play 1/4 to the left and 1/4 to the right it broke under my ownership when I was trying to connect my trailer in a drive way mechanic told me the teeth were stripped due to the oversized tires which makes sense he had issues finding a steering box that fit and I’m 100% positive he gave me a temporary fix he remanufactured the steering box and put on a lot of washers on it another mechanic told me and showed me why he did a ****ty job instead of moving the steel connected to steering box side to side when turning it moved it side to side with some up and down movements I’ve checked out my friends truck almost the same as mine just with a 4 inch lift and looks and works fine if anyone can help me understand what is causing the play and the bending if it has something to do with suspension or the steering
Your post is hard to follow with no punctuation :0. Several things come to mind here. #1, the lift required a drop pitman arm and Im guessing the splines are wasted in it thus the washers to try to push it up further on the steering box. I doubt the reman'ed steering box was bad but may be now die to the junk drop pitman arm. #2 steering parts wear out if he abused it. Tie rods, drag ling ends and the like all will cause slop in the steering. I cant say for sure but the drop trac bracket looks identical to the one that was on my 99 F250 with a 6" lift. That was a BDS lift kit and it steered just fine but did ride a bit harsh with the 10 leaf front spring packs.
Id grab a friend and have them turn the steering wheel left and right while you are looking at each of the front end components and see whats sloppy. Make SURE that pitman arm is not gonna fall off the box from butchery. If you not capable of fixing it then find a GOOD shop, not the one you used, and let them dig in. Your talking potential life threatening accidents playing with steering and a loss of due to a hack job.
That's a hack repair and unless they welded the pitman arm to the sector shaft, you could loose steering at any moment. I'd be inclined to report them to any licensing authority if they sent you out like this without directly telling you about the risks.
Depending on whats stripped, you either need a new steering box or a new, dropped, pitman arm. Notice I said "new". Don't buy a re-manufactured steering box, alot of times they just throw new seals in the boxes they get back as cores without doing anything else and they don't last. I'd suggest a Redhead/BlueTop steering box. They're a higher priced option, but it's a high quality rebuild with upgraded parts to fix any factory weaknesses.
I second/third what's been said. Reman boxes from box parts stores are known to have some slop. Redhead and blue top are the popular replacement recommendations. I went blue top - ported and added hydro assist RAM set up. It steers 35s like a dream. I have a pro comp lift and did go with a new pro comp drop pitman arm.
I have a steering issue on my 99 f250 7.3 4x4 6inch with lift mud tires I have 1/4 of play in my steering wheel to the left and 1/4 right half a steering wheel with no movement of the tires .I’ve got the hang of it where I can drive straight but I need it fixed . What could this be I know previous owner used it as a mudding truck and I’m certain he didn’t treat it well .I’ve compared it to a friend of mines truck exactly the same and I noticed that my center link moves up and down as if it were bending only when moving the steering wheel sideways, on or off as for my friends only moves side to side with no upward motion . His trucks drives straight without moving the steering as much as I do .tie rod center link maybe ??
Last edited by Jeronimo.r; Mar 16, 2023 at 09:29 PM.
When the truck is running and at a stop, the steering wheel can move 1/4 of a rotation in either direction? A visual should be able to target the component(s). Along with your center link (I'm assuming your drag link, or is it your track bar?) your steering gear might be developing some slop. With engine on, see if there is a perceivable amount of lost motion from the input to output. There should be zero. A lot of guys have this issue with the older trucks and replace with Redhead or Blue Tops with good results (myself included). You'll want to have someone turning the steering wheel while stopped and visually check all the steering linkages for play.
You have up and down movement, most likely you're going to need to replace all your links, tie rods, possible the ball joints and I would do it all just because you stated that it was used for mudding and he didn't treat it well. You also need to look at the steering rod, it either has a rag joint or it has a hard rubber / plastic piece where it goes into the larger tube before the gearbox if it has slop while wiggling the steering wheel back and forth then you'll need to replace the steering column shaft assembly too.
I would first start by checking and replacing ANY parts that have any movement or slop. There should be very little movement in steering components. If something is moving up and down replace that first but if it was used as a dig truck I can assume it’s had large mud tires which eat up steering and suspension components.
the lift doesn’t help either. I woild take apart the whole system and order new bushings, tire rods the ends, links ball,joints etc.
Hello I have my 1999 f250 7.3 4x4, im currently having a few issues that might be resolved with one fix .i have felt a vibration that only feels noticeable at 50-60 and normal at any other speed its bad enough to loosen my 4x4 Manuel lever bolt . I can feel it in the center or not far from it ,i now have a diesel ,transmission and axle leak which is has never had especially not at once .u joints seam to be intact only 1 is not new there’s no tire wear it is lifted but I’m not sure what part could fail and cause these issues .my guess is the transfer case I have had it go out twice without any warning this time might be different if it is the case sounds like it’s giving me a warning but it does have oil even though it leaks
Hello I have my 1999 f250 7.3 4x4, im currently having a few issues that might be resolved with one fix .i have felt a vibration that only feels noticeable at 50-60 and normal at any other speed its bad enough to loosen my 4x4 Manuel lever bolt . I can feel it in the center or not far from it ,i now have a diesel ,transmission and axle leak which is has never had especially not at once .u joints seam to be intact only 1 is not new there’s no tire wear it is lifted but I’m not sure what part could fail and cause these issues .my guess is the transfer case I have had it go out twice without any warning this time might be different if it is the case sounds like it’s giving me a warning but it does have oil even though it leaks
Step away from the transfer case. People seem to think there's magic beans in there but they're absurdly simple and in 2wd do almost nothing. Seriously, it's just a solid shaft that gets power from the trans and sends it straight to the rear driveshaft. Even in 4hi they do very little except spin a chain to power the front output.
Your axle leak is probably unrelated, although you don't specify front or rear, and is this a wheel seal or pinion seal or diff cover or ?
If your t-case lever is vibrating, my money is on motor mounts, trans mount, or a bad rear u-joint. Does power braking cause the lever to move side to side a good bit, say over 3/4" (I made up an arbitrary number)
I think you're seeing several small issues and trying to make them fit a single narrative (to that end, we could probably blame POTUS -- everything seems to be that guy's fault)
