Steering Issue

[Chewman]

Ok, I come to the guru's again for guidence!

This one has me stumped.

Been trying to figure out a steering issue for last 2 weeks. My steering will sometimes not want to return after making a 60 to 90 degree turn. The wheel feels like it is sticking and I have to give it more arm to get it to come back to straight. It will do it left or right but more so with a right turn.

When it does this the wheel feels like the steering went out of alignment as the truck will pull a little usually to the right. To clear the alignment feeling being out I have found that turning the steering 1/2 turn to the left and right will usually clear it.

All the balls joints, and rod ends are tight with no slop.

Friday on my way home it added a gremlin. I was coasting up to a red light @ 5mph timing the light with just finger pressure on the wheel. When it went green I goosed the gas a little sharper than normal and the steering wheel snapped about 1/8 a turn to the right. It felt like what a front wheel drive will do with torque steer but it's not in 4x4 and the hubs are not locked in. After it did this it felt like it wanted to pull to the right. A quick left and right with the wheel and it tracked straight on. I have tried to repeat this with no luck.

Do I have a Pump problem, steering gear problem or something else?

Power steering pump is 2 years old. Steering gear is 4 months old.
Truck has 185K and needs a new steering damper since it's leaking.

Where do I look?

 

[DaveBen]

Fix what you KNOW is bad; the steering dampener. It may be causing your return problems. It is a good place to start.

Dave

 

[mille-ryan]

I wonder if 4 wheel is really disengaged or not.Just seems odd that going straight it would do it under throttle.Mine just shakes like a wet dog when i stop,lol.

 

[aklim]

Try driving without a steering dampner for a bit. AFAIK, it is the shock like thing below. If the problem goes away, get a new dampner.

 

[Chewman]

But what could cause the change when adding power?

 

[snicklas]

Are the U-Joints in the knuckles in good shape? I knew a guy that had a "Brick Nose" truck and he described the same issue as the "stuck" sensation you have. I am not sure about the torques steering issue. Was there any inperfections in the road surface that could have caught a tire and cause the wheel to jerk? Was this a one time thing? Also to test it hte 4x4 is enguaged or disenguaged, find a gravel surface and come to a complete stop and goose the throttle.... make sure you to it hard enough to make the wheels slip in the gravel... take a look and see if the front slipped in the gravel also. if your transfer case is in 2x4 and the front slips your transfer case is not disenguaged...

 

[Ken1]

I would suggest that you drop a magnet on a string to the bottom of PS fluid.
I think you have metal fines in your PS system.
Never had this problem on my "X" even after 218K But a 2006 F350 at 21K the PS unit was replaced.

If you find and metal fines the system will need a PS unit, all fluid replaced. In my case a also dropped a magnet on a string in fluid the catch any metal fines that were flowing in the system. It took about 3 months to catch all the fines
Good Luck

Ken

 

[CHPMustang]

I just replaced the PS unit(again) this past Saturday morning for the reman started it's grinding/buzzing crap along with hard to turn the wheel Friday. All good for now but good thing it comes with a Lifetime warranty.

On edit the reman PS pump is like $60 at Autozone,just make sure if you don't have one rent a pulley install kit as it's worth every cent!

 

[bigrigr]

Another concern is the ball joints themselves, they can be tight with no slop, but they may be "too" tight. I've seen many of these trucks with ball joints that won't hardly turn when disconnected from the steering linkage. They look good when doing the shakedown check, but they are so tight that you can't turn the tire by hand on the jack with the tire in the air. Definately makes it hard for the wheel to return to center, and it also makes the truck track wherever the steering input stops. If you get in to check this out, remove the outer tie rods from the knuckles and try to turn the wheel by hand on the jack left to right, then do it while "rotating" the tire at the same time with the hubs locked in to check the axle joints like mentioned above, they can also have adverse effects on return to center if they are dried up tight as well

 

[Chewman]

Ok update on my steerring issues.

I changed the Sterring dampener, no change in my problem.

The problem has changed now though. IT went from sticking when trying to return to just the opposite. Now it wants to self center and it feels like something is pushing the wheel back to center.

I figured I must have had bugers in the fluid or a bad hydraulic valve in the steering.

Changed the steering gear and pump, flushed the lines until fluid was nice and new. No change. Still have the problem.

I have also changed the Panyard (track bar) Bushings. Being it does this after cornering, figured maybe a bad bushing was causing the front end to shift and the steering to act up.

Now the problem comes and goes. Some days it drives fine. Others it will do it every time you turn left or right. Sometimes it's only a light push to center, others its a strong snap to center that takes the wheel out of your hand for a second as the wheel is returned to center.

Is there any other valving that can cause this? I dont know how the powersteering assisted Power brakes work. Is there something in the master cylinder that could cause this?

All the ball joints were in over a year before this gremlin started.

I read a Ford Tech Bulleltin that talked about a steering issue that they changed a hose to fix. My link is bad so I cant get back to it. Does anyone remember what this was for?

Thanks again. I keep trying to solve this.