I took it for a ride and have a few issues. The main one being the fact that the steering is a bit heavier than mine and it seems to not be right. By that I mean, when you are going straight and are trying to turn left or right just a bit, like making a lane change, you have to give it a bit of effort to get it there, then once you do, it seems to go a little more than you wanted to and you have to correct it back in the other direction again. If you are on a gradual curve and get it pointed in the right direction, and take your hands off the wheel, it will stay in the exact curve you have it steering in. It won't even attempt to return to center.
My question is, is this ball joints, slop in the steering box, or something else?

 

Does one truck have a steering stabilizer and the other not? I wouldn't suspect ball joints for what your describing. Maybe try jacking the front wheels off the ground and see how the steering feels then. This might help identify steering box issues. Also check the fluid. It probably needs to be flushed.

 

I told him that we were definitely going to flush it with mobil1 synthetic fluid. But something is not right. If that fixes it, I will be surprised big time.

 

I don't think flushing will fix it, just thinking good fluid might keep the pump from going south if there's additional resistance coming from somewhere.

 

Sounds to me like maybe the PO took some slop out of the wheel by over tightening the adjustment on the steering box. Someone chip in here and let me know if I am way off base.

 

Jason, my '03 F350 acted exactly the same way. Put in 4 new ball joints and everything was fine. Had only 67K and needed new ball joints? Not what I had expected. I too felt that the steering was very heavy before. That is a good description.

 

Hey Mark, don't feel bad. My truck had 65K on it when I got it and it too needed ball joints, but it didn't feel like this one. Good thing that the dealership had to pay for mine. Mine would roam around a lot when going over bumps, his seems solid in this regard. We are going to jack it up tomorrow and see if there is any play in it. I will keep you guys posted. Thanks.

 

Jason, what would cause ball joints to go bad in less than 70K? Since ours are both '03's makes me wonder if someone had a bad night and forgot to put grease in the joints?

Markadeck, good point. Hadn't thought of that but it would have the same effect.

 

Well in my case, it seems that my truck had been used previously as a salt and plow truck. When I put my plow frame on, I noticed some pieces from a previous plow down in the frame tubing. I'm thinking the PO was a little harder on the front end than I would have liked. I'm figuring thats what happened to mine.

 

Is the ball joint issue mainly a Northern thing, or is it an issue with trucks that have additional weight on the front or are lifted?

I guess I am lucky, 260K onthe original ball joints, and have only had to align the truck once (that was at 30K miles). I have the tires rotated every 5K miles, and the alignment checked twice a year. My tire shop has never had to readjust the alignment after the first time 230K miles ago. I was leary of my ball joints (after reading a lot of threads about them going bad) and had the front end guy at the tire shop check them, and he could find no slop, and told me not to worry anymore.

 

I was wondering the same thing since I'm still running on my factory ball joints, and I have yet to replace any on the work trucks.

 

I had new ball joints, tie rod ends, calipers, tires put in\on my '99 and am having this same problem after the work.

 

I wanted to update a few things. I just realized that I could search my posts from my profile. Anyway, the place he bought it adjusted the steering box and the effort in the steering improved but it still was not returning to center. I was following him and noticed that the tires were tilted out at the top (I can't remember if thats caster, camber or what?) so I said something to him. He took it to a shop that we used to deal with many years ago and they were fantastic when it comes to front end alignments and things like that. They looked at it and it was definitely ball joints. He had uppers and lowers replaced and I believe the tie rod end was good. I haven't driven it since then but he said it is waaaaay better so I am assuming that it was in fact the Ball joints.
Brandon, I am astonished at the fact that your alignment as well as your ball joints have held up that long. I KNOW that your truck has worked as hard as any out there. Kudo's to your maintenance powers!!

 

Jason, good to hear that you got it fixed. I'm sure that your dad is a lot more pleased with the truck now that it drives nicely instead of having to fight it. I'm surprised that the ball joints would set the camber out at the top. All the geometry would indicate the top being pointed in. But ya learn something new here every day.