My 1986 F150 seems to drift (maybe sway?)constantly! I am always having to steer left and right just to keep it straight. My question is, would you do a front end alignment first or would you replace the steering gear box first? I think the gear box may be worn (the person who had the truck before me was a landscaper who regularly took the truck thru the woods, rocks, etc...). I was thinking about doing the alignment first (seems cheaper?). Is there anything else that can cause my truck to drift or sway like this that I haven't thought of ('cuz I dont know!!!!)?

 

Same thing happened to me, and here is what I did. First thing I did was make sure the tires looked pretty good. Then I jacked it up and swapped the left front for the right front. Believe it or not this solved my problem. I then bought new tires and did not need to have an alignment. Try this first before u do anything else. Don't forget to check the tire pressure as well.

 

Also, if everything is good with your frontend & tires...try adjusting the gear box.
I had the same problem with my truck.

 

I would try the easy stuff that was mentioned above first. Like alignment, tires, and get somebody to possibly try adjusting the steering boin the straight ahead position only!). If all this fails, I would disconnect the steering linkage and with the frontend a little off the ground, try turn the tires back and forth. I had this happen to a friends Bronco, and it turned out his balljoints where corroded and stiff. He had to put some penetrate in them to loosen them up and the problem went away. Try the other stuff first though.

 

Ok...well, it looks like the gear box needs to be replaced. We checked the tires inflation (they're new...only about 100 miles on them). They are ok. We did a front end alignment...that is ok. Checked even the steering pump...that's ok. So we are going with a new gear box. Thanks for all the suggestions!!!! This lady and her truck need all the help we can get!!!!

 

Sometimes there can be more than one problem at play. Here's my story:

I had my 83 F250 in for total front end rebuild (down to the kingpins). The steering was majorly loose, and it didn't take a huge leap of faith to realize that the bad kingpins and radius arm bushings caused massive alignment problems that wore down the gears. I bought a replacement set of items from

http://www.performancesuspension.com/fordfek.html

Stuff was good quality... kingpings and links from federated-mogul, bushings from energy suspension (except one tie rod end was from a car(tarus? front wheel drive) and not a F250)

Also replaced i-beams, raidus arms, springs, and spindles with an 86 F250 from salvage. Also put in new bearings. Replaced the power steering gearbox at the same time since the pitman arm was disconnected for this work.

And it STILL wags in the steering wheel some. Though not as bad.--it HAS to be higher up the column somewhere. I'll let you know more if interested. Next items is to reconnect the gauges in the dash (good time to examine the steering column).


(Note : I actually let the Goodyear down the street do this because my jack & jackstands couldn't lift the truck up by the frame...too tall! i also didn't think I could remove the kingpins with my tools or put enough torque on some of the other items to install them properly)

(Note 2: The rear needs just as much work. I think I'm just going to go back to salvage and get a full float rear axle and work from there. Hopefully it won't be this much fun...I intend to do it myself)

(Note 3: If you do this, you will need to get disk calipers from the 86, since apparently the 83 calipers won't align with the mounting holes from the 86 spindle)

 

We held out on the steering gear box (decided to take the truck to a friend of a friend of a friends shop). He said everything looked fine but we may have a problem with the bushings sometime in the future. I have taken the truck out for a few little test drives on the highway, and since the alignment was done, it sways very little.I don't know much about alignment, but it was the toe alignment that needed adjusting.

Since I am totally in love with this truck (even though it is very tired looking), I started putting myself on other projects. I started doing some preservation work on the bed...removed the plastic bedliner, sanded the bed down on both sides and the rails, primed it grey for now). My husband put in a new brake booster pump (OMG the brake pedal DOES come back up!!), and we changed the spark plug wires. She is running soooo much better now!!!

Anyway, Thanks a lot for the info!!