Many of you know that itsjustdan26 just got a truck. Today he had something scary happen. The pic is below, I don't know what the bar is called but it helps if its attached!

 

ya that is supposed to be threaded into the other side of that coupling. he will need to replace 1 or both parts depending on what is striped out. even if the clamps are loose i don't think it should slide out.

 

Something im going to look at tomorrow morning........................

 

Yeah I strongly advise everyone lookin at that. I was feeling and hearing a thumping on the floorboard of the truck while turning and stuff. I didnt think anything of it. So today it sounded particullary funny. So I was drivin from my fathers place and I decided to take the long way home cuz there is more curves in the road and I wanted to pinpoint when the thumping was accuring and try to duplicate the sound ( a loud thump ). So I was about 1.5 miles from work and I started hearing a loud long squeel it went quieter when I slowed down, and louder when I sped up. So I turned the truck around and headed back to my place of work. I found a spot that had some lose gravel to see if my hubs for some reason locked up and is putting the front wheels in a bind, causing the truck to squeel the front tires. Tried backing up to unlock the hubs and still same thing on the road. Again headed back to work to park the truck and really take a good look at the front steering components. I pulled into the parking lot and back into my one of my usual spots. I turned the wheel one way and there was some resistance, I turned my wheel the other way and it was really easy. I look out of my window and my driver side tire was still turned to the left and my right side was straight.

The scary part is, I was about to get on a major hiway, and kick it up to about 55 or so. Very glad I didnt. It would have been alot worse than it ended up to be.

So my advise to you all.... Inspect your entire front end! I thought I went over it pretty good. But where it fail was unseen to the naked eye. It takes 15 minutes to really check things. I dont wanna hear about someone having my issue and run off the road and kill themselves or someone else on something that costs 60 bux to fix the entire bar and adjusting sleeve. 60 bux for the Moog brand with lifetime warrenty from Advance Auto Parts ( my place of work ). Not a bad deal if you ask me. Be safe, Be nice, Have fun in our monsterous toys!

Dan

Andrew thanks for takin the picture for me!

 

yep, our trucks steer much better when parts arn't dragging on the ground.....

 

Is this a common issue with our trucks?

 

Those broke in two different places. Looks like yours came off at the adjuster and Chris's broke at the drag link.

These two pictures are good reminders why its smart to look things over every now and then.

 

I just performed a bunch of front end work, but didn't mess with the steering. It looks like due to the design, you actually have to replace significant portions of the actual bars under there. Why the hell did they design it like that? I haven't looked up any parts or prices, but I'm guessing at least $400 in parts to replace all steering linkage joints.

 

F250 F350 Super Duty 4x4 Tie rod kit 99 00 01 02 03 04:eBay Motors (item 150352178876 end time Nov-12-09 10:49:30 PST)
This might help out

 

I helped my brother-in-law replace all the linkage in his 93 dodge V10 4X4. Our trucks are easy compared to them!

 

I've never heard of XRF. Are they as good as Moog?

Hmmmmm:
Can't complain about that!

Good to know. I've always liked those old body style Dodge trucks w/ the 12V Cummins.

 

I have seen them and heard of a few people that have used them. I have not heard much about how they hold up (although they are supposed to be manufactured better than Moog), so I went with Moog (can't go wrong with them).

I just replaced all my tie rods and drag links (Ford calls them all a tie rod of some sort: center, inner, outer right and outer left for the 4wd setup). I stuck with OEM on that since I got 185K out of them and they are greaseable (plus I knew they were an exact fit), but I got the "adjustment tubes" from Moog.

I haven't heard of many of these issues happening. After I had my alignment I jumped under there and checked the nuts on the adjustment tube. It doesn't take much to hold the tube in place (OEM torque spec is 40 lb-ft per nut), but if it's not, the results can be dangerous.

I know the 2wd is set up differently, but there should be 2 adjustment tubes on it just like the 4wd (although different places). Check to make sure the all 4 nuts (2 per tube) are at 40 lb-ft and you should be okay. I beat mine up pretty good off-road and haven't had a problem yet.

 

Yours is interesting. I'm a Hunter equipment specialist and pretty well versed in alignment stuff. My truck has us all stumped. When you tighten the clamps down on mine the toe will change .25deg. I have to adjust it past where it needs to be then tighten the clamps down until it is in spec.

My threads weren't as sharp as I thought they should be and replaced the sleeve and the short rod end. No change in what it is doing. Threads on long tie rod are fine. I'm stumped and yours makes me really wonder what is going on.

 

Scary stuff right there, I,m always under mine poking around because of the miles I put on my truck. Thanks for sharing and glad you were able to share this with us, could have been a totally different outcome..

 

I totally agree with you on that one Pump. It could have been alot worse, seein I was about to get on a major hiway with the speed limit of 45, which everyone does 55 or 60 on. Could of been really bad.

Thanks for the torque specs as well Brian. Ill be sure to do at least 40 ft. lbs. Ill post up prices for everything and part numbers for everyone when I get it done tomorrow. Thankfully I have a few friends at a local Big O Tires that will do the alingment for a case of beer. Saves me some $$ in that area. I just gotta get it pretty straight to drive it there after Im done with it. Unless someone on here has a trailer or something that can tow it about 4 miles so I can save some tires :P. Anyways Ill keep checkin back here for tips and stuff. Ive never done this on these bigger trucks. Cant be much different than cars and smaller pickups.

Dan