My U Joints have grease fittings and with a pump of grease every year you can postpone this issue!

 

Is there any way to install grease fittings on U-joints?

 

Only if there is a hole for a zerk fitting, my Ex came with the zerk fittings.

 

The axle u-joint binding makes a lot of sense. It was really stupid of Ford to put these in without fittings on some trucks. I know they don't want any vehicle to last forever but c'mon now.

 

This could have been my problem also because 1 u-joint would spin half way and then have resistance and even spring back to the original position. I replaced the PS pump and oiled the u-joint at the same time so I never was sure what it was. 90% went away and the other 10% went away when I replaced the PS belt.........Very strange

 

Worn Tie rod end? Could track straight for a little while then start wobbling when the tire is in a road groove.

 

Over the years I've had 3 or 4 trucks (both 2wd and 4wd) that would sometimes jerk the steering wheel, occasionally rather violently. Usually after hitting a bump (even a small bump). In each case it turned out to be the toe-in was out of adjustment. It was kind of frustrating the first time because I did all the checks, tie rods, steering box, front bearings, loose wheels, every thing was fine, nothing loose. I had the front end checked, they adjusted the toe-in then everything was fine. After that any time it happens I just get the toe-in adjusted and everything is OK. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

Hey guys, thanks for alot of good information on this subject as I have been pretty stumped over the last month. Im going to use somebody elses term of "steering gremlin" as thats the best way you can describe it. I have a 2001 F-350 diesel and it has intermittent steering pulls going back and forth as you try and compensate for the pull. Previous to this issue I had already replaced the entire front end including ball joints, tie rods, wheel bearing hub assemblies etc etc so I know it is tight. I have gone over everything and couldnt figure out how something that feels so seriously wrong could go back to normal by just pulling over onto the side of the road?!? This is an issue that you have to see/feel to really appreciate. Just hoping to hear if the power steering pump truly just seems to be a band aid of should a guy just change out the box and be done with it?? Thanks in advance!!

 

Mine quit doing it after a new pump.

 

Well I'm going to have to jump in on this steering gremlin () problem also. I have a '05 F350, PS,SB,DRW,4X4 with 125K miles and the steering has started to do this intermittent weird thing (could be only a cold issue) where you start out driving for the day and as you are going straight down the highway (speed seems not an element) you make a slight steering correction left or right, it will want to pull in that direction. So you make a correction in the opposite direction and it will want to resist your attempts to correct. So you will force the steering with a little more correction and it will resist but then it will over correct and start pulling in the direction you were trying to force and make it go in. So now you are steering back the other way and again its resisting your efforts to steer straight. It is not a rhythmic wobble, there does not seem to be anything rhythmic about it. Just seems that it wants to fight you steering the vehicle in a straight line (gremlins ). Since the problem is defiantly intermittent its hard to say but I think that I found that if I stop the vehicle and turn the steering all the way left, then all the way right and back to center the problem will be fixed for the rest of the time until stop and let things cool down (not sure whether the cooling down is part of the problem). With 40 years working on my own vehicles I've never seen or heard of anything like this.


Tires are newer (less then 8000 mi), tie rod ends tight(right one just replaced), ball joints tight (originally replaced at 25K mi), front end seems generally tight, hubs are ok. The only problem other then this gremlin is I feel the steering gear box is internally loose. The original gear box was replaced underwarrenty at 30K mi because it was excessively loose and now the replacement has loosen up.


I'm wondering whether there are problems with the valves in the gear box beginning to stick because of high miles. Has anyone tried replacing their steering gear box to fix this problem and if so, did that fix the problem? Also is anyone using the Red Hat gear box in a '05 or newer truck?

 

This isn't the same problem I had, mine was very rythmic and violent. Yours sounds like something is binding or a friction proplem. I would adjust the steering box to see if it changes anything and maybe disconnect the steering stabilizer temporarily. My box has 145k miles and is tight as new.

 

Violent at times yes but not rythmic unless you mean my steering inputs to force the truck to steer straight down the road. Don't see it being friction or binding issue as this one would expect to be constant therefore would be rythmic but mine wants to randomly steer on its own fighting ones steering input.

The fact that you state your gear box is tight after 145K mi seems to suggest that it is a different problem then mine. After following the posters here it seems to suggest that there might be serveral different failure modes which might cause similar symptoms.

Due to the history of problems with OEM steering gear boxes and the fact that RED HAT believes they are built loose to begin with at the factory, I'm leaning toward the gear box in my case althought this is not the cheaper easier route to go but then again the gearbox is loose anyways (the road less traveled).

 

Does it do it when running in 4 wheel drive and locked??

 

The hubs are the auto type and this is kinda an interesting question. The steering problem has only been noticed the last two weeks and the wife normally drives the truck on short earns. Its acted up on me only twice while I drove it and I found that by stopping and turning the steering wheel both ways the steering would start behaving. The other problem thats been puzzling me is the 10% drop in fuel milage and a faint wheering sound as speed builds going down the road. I initially atributed the noise and drop in fuel mileage to more aggresive new tires. But now I'm woundering whether the front hubs are not unlocking and contrbuting to the steering issue esp if one of them is sticking and locking/unlocking? Anyone know the easiest way to check the auto hubs to make sure they unlock, just jack the front up and spin the wheels to see if the axles spin? Maybe should take the hubs apart, clean, relub and replace seals?

 

Start by cleaning and lightly lubing them. Your old seals might be OK. I could stop my truck and turn the wheel back and forth in the gravel and it would be fine.......probably the same problem I had.