Power steering acting up
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Power steering acting up
I was on my way home today and after making a right turn I nboticed that my power steering was acting really odd. It felt like unless you kept the steering wheel perfetly in the middle, it would start steering that direction all by itself. Do I need a new pump? Whats going on??
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I really doubt its alignment related because it only happens after I make a sharp turn or a turn a bit fast. It then acts like it needs to steer to one direction or the other, and it wont keep straight. It also goes away completely if the truck sits for any period of time. Should I look at my PS pump? Can I take it apart or clean it?
Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2005
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From: Charles Town, W bygod Va
If you have grease fittings in the ball joints, lube them. To check them, jack the wheel off the ground and rock the wheel top to bottom while watching for play in the ball joints. If one is locking up you may not be able to feel any play in it. Take a small screwdriver and see if you can move the dust boot on the ball joint enough to see inside, wet and greasy is good, dry and rusty is bad. To check the axle joints jack up the wheel, lock the hub and try to turn the wheel with the steering turned to one side, it should rotate smoothly
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I jacked it up and I think the grease zerks are clogged because I tried every possible angle and force and the grease would do the ol shoot out the side. I also checked for play and i do have play both up and down and side to side, but the play is only in the wheels, so I think I need wheel bearings. There wasnt any play in any of the tie rod ends or ball joints (im still not sure if I have ball joints or kingpins since I have either a d44hd or d50 ttb) just in the wheel itself. Im also gonna get it aligned at a shop tomorrow to see if that fixes anything.
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Lead Driver
Joined: Dec 2002
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From: Kuna ID
Easy way to tell what axle you have is by the size of the hub. If it fills the center hole in your wheel, it's probably a D50. The D50 has special ball joints that take a long time to align and cost more than a standard alignment. I think my last alignment was $150 and took 2 hours.
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Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2005
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From: Charles Town, W bygod Va
the shop should do a thorough check on your front end before they ailgn it, I suggest telling them exactly what its doing. If you take it in for an alignment they will probably do a quick check on the tie rods and ball joints, but like I said before, a lockked up ball joint might not have any play and could be missed. I have done alignments for almost 20 years and have never seen a "normal" alignment adjustment cause a big difference in how a vehicle drives. I would tell you as a customer that your front end alignment would only be out enough to do that if you wrecked the truck and would probably be going through tires if your alignment was out that far
Elder User
Joined: Apr 2010
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From: South Jersey
sorry to bump an old thread but i'm having the same problem of after making a sharp turn the wheel wants to continue to turn in that direction. the cure is a quick jerk of the wheel in the opposite direction. curious to know what the solution ended up being. thanks.
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