Hey All. I am having a problem with my Steering Wheel in my 1996 Ford F150. And possibly the Steering of the truck included. My Steering wheel moves Up and Down! I mean when i'm driving my steering Wheel wiggles up and down. It's very irritating and worrys me. Also when I was driving last night I was turning to the left and it felt like I was trying to turn thorugh Mud or something. It was a LOT harder to turn the wheel. Weird! We checked the Steering fluid and it's fine. I've had soo many problems with this truck since we bought it used so this is just One more in Many problems. Any suggestions to look? I have no idea. Thanks!!

 

the exact same thing happend to my 96 f150 after my wreak in january. the steering wheel would move independently of the sterring coloum about a inch, when i turned it would make a racheting sound, sometimes the wheel would get stuck halfway through the turn. when i drove over bumps the wheel would bounce up and down.

it got worse over the month i had to drive my truck smashed up waiting for a insurance check, it ended up being a steering shaft and some bearings inside of the coloum.

the bad news it cost 1299.99 at the dealership for parts and labor.

i didnt want to mess with mine becouse the other guys insurance was paying for it, but maybe you could do it yourself and save some money.

i'm more then sure its a safty issue so if you havent already get it somewhere to be looked at.

 

Thanks!! My Dad thought it might have something to do wtih the Steering shaft too. There is NO way I can afford 1299.00! No way. Thank God we have a great friend of ours who is an Incredible mechanic. Just one More thing to add to the things that have gone wrong with this piece of Crud!
Thanks for the help

 

The 92-96 F-series steering column as well as the 89-94ish full size ford (town car, marquis, crown vic) columns are the same mechanically. The wiring is quite different.

What you do is find one of the above columns, remove all the switches (ignition, turn signal, etc) then swap those parts from your column over to that column, and reinstall.

If you really want to be "nifty", just move the bearings and the steering shaft over. That's not a big deal either... maybe an hours worth of work.

 

Thanks for the advice. My husband is taking the truck over to our best friends house tomorrow and letting him take a look at it. Thank God he's a Great mechanic.
Thanks for all the help

 

instead of swapping switches and that why not just get a column from the junk yard and put it in my 89 f150 was 75 bucks for the column and bout 40 minutes to put it in.

 

You might have riped some gears in the gearbox if the new shaft dosnt fix it. I know that happens quite often when 4 Bangin. Check the pitman arm as well sometimes they can be a bitch and get torqued.

 

Thanks everyone. Well DH and his buddy decided it had something to do with Bearings. It'd take a force of God to get fixed! So we're sticking w/ it for now. Thanks