My 18 yo son borrowed my truck last weekend to get some firewood. And took it through some pretty tough terrain (over a bunch of stumps). So I get in the truck yesterday and find that the steering wheel is cocked about 30 degrees clockwise. The rig doesn't pull or anything. I called the shop I go to for suspension work, and they tell me (before they knew about the off-roading) that something must have been bent.

The long drag link (pass. side) is not straight. Should it be? Can this be straightened or should it be replaced?

 

With the price of tires, I would say replaced.

You may be able to straighten it, and then have the front end aligned.

What front axle do you have?

 

I may be a 'fraidy cat but I've always been a little scared to bend (or straighten) front-end parts due to work-hardening (embrittlement). I would err on the safe side and replace the link.

 

Replace it, just be prepared for the stickershock. Front end parts are not cheap.

I dropped over $CDN 800 in parts into my 91 F350 for Tie-rods, Tie-ends, and a new steering gear. And still had to do all the work myself.

Darn that front end stuff is expensive..

 

Fords are notorious for front ends....my Dad swears as soon as they perfected kingpins, they stopped using them....had the 86 F250 checked out before I bought it, needed $1200.00 of front end work....it came off the asking price.

 

Well, I replaced the drag link last night. Only $72 + tax at Autozone. It was a bear to get the old one off. Had to heat the pressed fits to the Pitman arm and tie rod with a propane torch, pry like the dickens with a pickle fork, and bang on the end with a one-hand sledge to get the thing off. Whew! My son owes me 4 hours of work.

 

Hopefully you were careful not to damage the seal on the steering gear output shaft with too much heat.

I have replaced both steering gears in my trucks. I usually pull the pitman arm off with my uncle's 50 ton hydraulic press and a little bit of heat.

Why were you removing the pitman arm? The only time you need to take it off is when you are changing the steering gear? For replacing the tie-bar all you need to separate it the balljoint connecting to the pitman arm. That in-itself can a difficult task unless you have a ball joint spreader.


Seb....


Seb....

 

LOL! My Jeep's suspension would probably scare the $&!# out of you then. The trackbar is a home-built job made out of two stock ones welded together - with an additional bend added at one end for good measure! Both the frame AND axle brackets it mounts to have been modified too, plus I have home-made adjustable spacers on top of the front springs and home-made shackles on the rear springs!

I think he meant that getting the press-fit balljoint stud out of the Pitman arm was a bear, Seb. At least that's the way I read it. I don't think that he pulled the Pitman arm off the steering box to change the tie rod....

 

You are probably right, a propane torch would not generate enough heat to get the pitman arm loose quick enough to get it off the shaft. He probably is just refering to separating the ball joint from the pitman arm. I remember when I press the pitman arms off I put tons or pressure on and start heating. When the arm lets go there usually is quite a bang. He must be refering to the ball joint end.

 

Yeah, when I lifted my Jeep I had to install a dropped Pitman arm to keep the steering geometry right. I used a Pitman arm puller/balljoint press. Soaked the arm & shaft with PB Blaster two or three times over a period of a couple of days beforehand.

Put the puller on it, tightened it up, whacked the end of the puller shaft with a hammer a couple of times, whacked the side of the pitman arm where it goes around the shaft a couple of times in two or three different places. Re-tightened the puller and repeated the whole process over again. A couple of times. About the fourth or fifth time I went to tighten the puller she let go with a bang.

Definitely one of those "slow and steady wins the race" kinda deals.....

 

I'm a little sensitive to tie rod ends. I had one come apart on my F-150, fortunately at low speed in a parking lot. Five minutes earlier I had been doing 60 in traffic.
Your custom fabricated chassis doesn't sound that scary. Some of my students have invited me to go 4-wheeling with them, but I had to tell them that, although my truck was 4WD, they were all on the same axle.