1994 7.3 idi F350 4x4 Steering HELP

[snicklas]

I agree on U-Joints also. I know someone that had a Bricknose F-350. It had all kinds of weird steering issues. Would pull, would jerk, had trouble turning the wheel, or could make a turn and it would not self-center, it would stay "stuck" in the direction of the turn and he would have to strongarm it back straight.

He replaced all the "usual suspects" ball joints/kingpins (not sure which it had), Tie Rod Ends, bushings, steering box, dampener... still had the same problem. He took it to another shop and they started looking into it, and found one of the knuckle U-Joints had 1 axis that was seized. Not both, so one set of cups turned freely on the "X", the other set would barely move on the "X".

How this happens is during normal 2 wheel driving, hubs unlocked, the front driveline will still "freewheel" a bit, and the shafts will move around some. So at times, the stuck joint was in a position that movement of the stuck set was not necessary and everything worked as it should. Later, after things have moved around a bit, now this stuck axis is the one that needs to move... and it doesn't move well at all, causing issues. Later, its moved more and the bad set is back "out of the way" again......

I would say check out the U-Joints in the front axle, inside both knuckles behind the wheels.

 

[IDIoit]

now i see why! didnt seem right when posted, but it all adds up now!

 

[G. Mann]

I had the same problem on a 4x4 Geo Tracker. Spent a bunch of money chasing the problem, then found the wheel bearings on that side were galled and toast. Fortunately, when the wheel bearing started to lock up, and it made the wheel pull to that side, it had not yet spun the bearing in the hub... I got lucky, since I was towing the car behind a 40 ft motor home for about 2000 mile trip, it had likely been doing it under tow and I didn't know it. Only discovered the problem after I dropped the motor home off and drove the Geo back, another 2000 miles..

Simple to check.. have a look at your wheel bearings.

 

[19947.3idigogreen]

Wheel bearings are good. I'm definitely going to look at u joints. Would bad bushings in the leafs cause this problem?

 

[IDIoit]

Wheel bearings are good. I'm definitely going to look at u joints. Would bad bushings in the leafs cause this problem?

i have bad bushings in my SD, she just cluncks. and sways a bit but nothing like youre talking about

 

[19947.3idigogreen]

So play in leaf bushing wouldnt cause this...

 

[IDIoit]

i cannot confirm that, i can only give you the info i know.

 

[3Kp]

While I would be driving down the highway it would randomly jerk/pull hard to the left, then all of sudden a Lil while later it would jerk back straight. Scares the **** out of me while driving. I feel you on that one first time it did it to me I had a cab full of kids
Thanks again everyone.

I took my truck to have it looked at at 2 different places One said it was the king pins. The other one told me I need all new bushings on my steering stabilizers, track bar and replace all U-joint including Axle joints. Which I haven't done yet! But if you lived closer we could attach our truck together and go straight since mine yanks to the right! lol

I did have a few questions on this matter. Do you need to pull axles to change axle joints? If you have to pull the axles do you have to replace the axle seals or can you reuse the ones in it already?

 

[IDIoit]

yes, your axles have to come out to replace the u-joints.
forget about using the hammer method and trying to beat these out, i went straight for the torch.
one side i had to cut the u-joint completely, it was a BEAR!
dont nick the axle!

your seals are inside of the front end, to replace them you have to pull the carrier apart.
the good thing is, if they dont leak, you dont have to change them. just be very carefull when you re-instal the axles.

 

[79jasper]

^ very very careful.
They aren't hard to change though. Just need to stick the carrier into a bucket of ice for a few hours. Otherwise you'll never get it back in.
For u joints, stick with dana/Spicer. Trust me.
And I used a rental ujoint/ball joint press.

Sent from my SM-T537R4 using Tapatalk

 

[ironworker40]

I have beat ,pressed, torched out many u joints in the last 35 years including at least 20 of these ford axle shafts. These axle joints are tuff. I even have a u joint /ball joint press. I got smart and bring them to my local driveshaft shop now. They charge me 10 bucks to press the joints and they carry spicers. I have a beer with the guy while he does it. He can do a double cardan u joint in under 10 min. and if he drops the cap I don't have to find all the needles lol.

 

[3Kp]

Well I had to use my truck over last weekend thought someone mention about locking the front hubs.. I was shocked on how well the truck drove didn't jerk once. I drove a total of 160 miles since I locked the hubs.

I really don't drive the truck much since I'm usually in my work vehicle 8-12 hrs a day and by time I get home I'm done with driving and the wife usually drive me around like Mr. Daisy