I did the adjustment before the Hellwig install. and let me tell you it was very darty with the sterring being so responsive. after the Hellwig install it was like driving a go kart, albeit a 7500lb go kart. but still much safer to drive than stock!!!

 

Wow, yours is light!

Mine weighs 8600lbs.

Stewart

 

One thing y'all might want to consider with these adjustments. The slop is from wear in and around the center of steering, where you spend much of the time driving....1/2 turn of the wheel from center area. There's little relative wear at the extreme's of turning. You don't spend much time at full lock so now all those adjustments you made are in actuality binding the box at the extremes of turning. I doubt many, if any, have actually been inside one of these units. If you have you'll see how a reciprocating ball rack works and why your "fixes" will just accelerate the wear. The real fix is to replace the whole gear box with a new one.

 

If that turns out to be the case, so be it. But until then, I'm getting more bang for my buck by prolonging the replacement.

Stewart

 

prostock, regardless if I've seen the inside of one of these boxes or not, that's some pretty strange logic.

Don't tweak the box you'll just accelerate wear, replace it instead?

Huh? If the steering doesn't bind after the adjustment and cause a safety issue, who cares?

I don't argue that the real fix is to replace the box, but if you put that off for another 20k miles by tweaking it, you saved money.

Doug

 

Doug, we think alike!

Stewart

 

Doh! You beat me to the submit button! =D

 

Only by 5 minutes.

See? That's what happens when you take a 5 min break!

BTW, I did this fix back in December of '06. Just shy of 30K miles ago, and my rig is still running fine. So I've added 30K + miles to the life of my steering box.

I'm happy!

Stewart

 

I did mine before 20k miles and it was still good at 60k when we traded it in last month.

The Michelin LTX M/S tires we put on it last fall totally brought back the wander and I was never able to get it back to where it was with the stock BFG tires. That was one of the contributing factors to trading it in...

 

I'm with Stewart and Doug...albeit 2+ hours after the bobsie twins! jk...

What would we replace our boxes with?...another OEM one that is prone to the same issue?...or spend big bucks on an aftermarket one when I can spend 5 minutes of wrenching to take out the slop like I did over 10K miles ago and the steering response is still as reactive as when I made my adjustment...although I didn't over do mine...I made 3 individual 1/4 turn adjustments to take out the play that caused a constant need for steering wheel inputs while towing...now I can simply place one hand at the bottom of the wheel and simply drive...

There certainly may be merits to Prostocks advice...and we may all be headed to a box replacement in the future...the difference is that our approach is a maybe spend money on a box replacement versus a certain cash outlay in Prostocks approach...I'll hedge my bets for the time being knowing that I may have prematurely wore out an already wore out steering box that I nurse along for another few years...

This is still one of the best threads on this forum...even though Doug abandoned us for that mini-Exursion he now drives! ...

we still love you man!

joe.

 

Group hug! Doh! Sorry, that's a different forum!

It is indeed a mini-excursion! It does tow my low-profile 7k gvwr travel trailer with 90% of the capability of the excursion. The Excursion teamed to an appropriately sized 6spd auto would be the heavyweight suv towing champ of all time! The 6spd in the Expy makes that V8 tow like a V9.9. I was truly amazed after my 1500 mile trip.

That said, I wouldn't dream of hooking up Joe's trailer to the Expy. That would be a deathwish. So, we're stuck with smaller, lighter trailers, but we're ok with that.

Yes, I drive an Expedition - "not that there's anything wrong with that", to quote Seinfeld

I do miss the "tick off the enviro-wacko" aspect that the Excursion had going for it...

 

I sure hope this thread gets added to every pre-existing wandering thread. I've noticed steering wheel play and think that is the cause of my Excursion's wandering.

Note: I've already done the tires (285 Wrangler Silent Armour) and ball joints added Helwig sway bars, Bilstein shocks, RAS and had an alignment done - and the Excursion is still a handlful when towing our 31 foot "lightweight" trailer.

It's probably just a steering box adjustment away from being a perfect tow vehicle.

 

It depends on how much adjustment you make...small adjustments are probably a great alternative. But several full turn adjustments and I think you are headed for a new box.
Why are they so prone to being sloppy in the first place? Do the pickup's have the same problem? Seems like building a decent gearbox would be fairly straightforward these days...they have remained essentially unchanged for the last umteen years. I would hope that a OEM replacement would be upgraded, but I am probably wrong there

 

All the feedback I have gotten is that new factory boxes are hit and miss if you get a tight one or not, and I think that is evidenced by the fact that mine was awful at 16k miles (as were many others around the forum).

Yeah, you'd think they could do it right by now, buuuuuutt we all know how big companies can work sometimes...

 

i did mine today, had to remove my k&n fipk to get to the steering box. not sure how many turns it took as i was too busy cursing and yelling due to lack of room in there.anyway, it made a huge difference, drives like its on rails. i did have a small amount of fluid come out when i losened the lock nut, is this normal?