Steering upgrades

[mudxtc]

My lil truck is having some steering issues. It only has 200K on the original parts........ Is there a "kit" out there for the front end? Tie rods, ball joints, etc?

 

[Goose_ss4]

the actual rods probaly will never wear out unless you kit them with something, and bent them. at your local napa auto parts store or wear ever they sell the ends withe the ball joint. be sure to get the uppers and lowers, or they with just give you one. i think there is like 3 or 4. i still got the stock ones on mine. are sure the leafs are not just walking?

 

[mudxtc]

Goose, at slow speeds, it feels like one of the tires has a broken belt. When I get of 15-20 mph, it goes away until I slow down and start to speed up again. Also, I have a rather annoying clunk right under my feet (sway bar dogbone?!?) it could be the leaf spring bushings........... I don't really know a whole lot about this trucks life prior to me getting it so I don't know how bad the suspension was abused......

Thought I would be better off just replacing all the serviceable parts that I could and then have an alignment and see if I can get anothert 200K out of her

 

[mudxtc]

OH, I already checked, the tires are good. The had about 95 PSI in them when I bought the truck though. I dropped the pressure to 55 PSI when I rotated them (thats when I checked the tires for a broken belt).

 

[Goose_ss4]

if the nosie is there when you accelerate, and then goes away that sounds like a u joint or a yoke going out. they just fall apart, and when they loose their material like that they just shake themselves apart. you would only feel this under acceleration. i would check those out first, and see if the drop in air pressure helped. it might not be the sterring. are you having a hard time steering? like does it sometimes not steer at all? i am just saying because there is nothing on the steering that can make alot of noise.

 

[mudxtc]

Sorry, should have been more precise with my problems,,,,,,,

Steering feels like a broken belt in one of the front tires at slow speeds (maybe ball joints or ties rods) smooths out above 15-20 mph.

Clunk is when I cross over bumpy surfaces, I am leaning towards the dogbones but it may be the leaf spring bushings........when it is on smooth road surfaces it is nice and quiet.

In short, I know there at least two problems with the front end.......

 

[u2slow]

I had a clunk too... it turned out to be the passenger tie-rod. Very easy to pick out visually with somebody else turning the wheel for you.

My shock bushings were also really beat up. It made for extra noise whenever the suspension moved suddenly (pot-hole, small bump, etc). The bolt would be slapping back and forth in the ovalled shock bushing. I replaced my shocks anyways for the 4" lift.

I'm getting a steering wobble on my '90 F350 loaner.... its wierd, don't really feel it in the steering wheel. I did notice one tire leaning in slightly when I parked it tonight; so that pretty much says its a balljoint.