Steering box question.

[colbystephens]

Today I was going through the front end of my truck and retightening bolts and such. Found far more loose ones than I'm comfortable with. Guess I need to add re-tightening to a frequent schedule.

Anyway, I have a little bit of looseness in my sterring wheel. Not a ton - probably about 1/12 of a turn of looseness. This is with the truck off, wheel unlocked, and sitting on gravel. Within that 1/12th there's a TINY bit of tire movement too. So, I started looking for slop in my system, and found that one of my DLEs had loosened up, so I snugged it down, along with a loose bolt in my steering box. There was very little change in the tightness of the wheel.

So I was looking at my rag joint while my wife was turning the wheel, and that looked fine. Then I noticed that almost all of that slop is in the backlash of the steering box. Does this seem right? It makes sense, but I just wanted to check.



By the way, how often do you guys go through and re-tighten all your bolts? NV backcountry roads are SUPER rough (they're a lot like a dry riverbed), so it makes sense that they'd loosen up over time, I suppose.

 

[K85 Octane]

Check the slop with the adjuster (or whatever you wanna call it) on top of the box. I loosened mine up, then tightened it down slowly till it stopped, reversed maybe 1/8 turn and locked it down. Not sure exactly how to do this, but the truck drives perfect and straight. Got 1000 miles on it like this.

Also, I check over steering bolts and suspension bolts every couple outings. I got lucky one time to find my engine mounts were missing 3/6 bolts. Got that taken care of with some new hardware.

 

[454Sub]

Yep, try adjusting the bolt on top. I wana say its an allen head and a 9/16 or so lock nut. Im actually going to do it tomorrow as mine has a bit of play and all new tierod ends, ball joints, and XJ shaft is all tight.

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

To your question as how often do you check bolts? Um.... never. Though I probably should after playing. And I live in the sticks, so the last half mile or so it's dirt & gravel with ruts and washouts.

Start with what they said on tightening up your box. After that, instead of re-tightening bolts, loc-tit them.

 

[72blazerguy]

By the way, how often do you guys go through and re-tighten all your bolts?

I have to check mine after every few trips. Loose bolts have been an on going problem. Seems like the same ones are usually the culprits. I keep a close eye on spring shackle bolts, motor mounts, doubler mount, and steering box bolts. I have been replacing nuts/bolts with new and using nylocks on suspension stuff. Seems to help..

 

[colbystephens]

Front spring shackle bolts are my problem too. I just replaced the nuts yesterday with pinch nuts, so I think that will help.

As to the adjuster on the box: makes sense. I don't know why that didn't occur to me, because it's on my list of things to look at for another issue I'm having. Thanks!

K85 Octane: how much play is in your wheel?

 

[Avery4jc]

I check bolts all the time on my truck and almost always find something loose. I tighten u bolts before each trip and on multiple day trips I generally check them each morning before moving on.
Be careful tightening the box. There's a correct way to do it and I've read it a couple times over the years when 4x4high posts it. Search under his name.

 

[colbystephens]

The sector shaft adjustment makes sense as the problem, because recently I found that the cap on my steering box had loosened and was leaking PS fluid. When I went to crossover steering I didn't go to a 2wd box. Instead, owenst7 and I replaced the sector shaft in the box w/ a 2wd version out of what I think was a Ford van, if I recall right. When I asked him about the leak, he told me that the 4 bolts on the cap needed to be torqued down before the sector shaft is adjusted - and he couldn't remember which order we did things. So, it's been on my list to go get that taken adjusted properly again. Guess it ought to be at the top of my list. I'll have to give him a call and head over to his place this week to make sure it's done right.

I will search for Scott's comments on the topic.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Colby, you can call me and I can explain it but to do it properly will require an INCH pound DIAL type torque wrench and you MUST remove the pitman arm or at least the draglink from the pitman arm in order to make the adjustment.

 

[blazinzuk]

If you still have a rag joint then I say your play is in there. Rag joints have play. U joints typically do not. Hence one of the reasons that you will find virtually all aftermarket shafts use u joints.

I have heard tightening the steering box so much it drives me nuts. If you have the proper tools these things rarely go out of adjustment.

Try some blue loctite on bolts you can't get pinch nuts on Colby and if you use pinch nuts use some copper anti seize on them to prevent thread galling.

 

[K85 Octane]

K85 Octane: how much play is in your wheel?

none

I'm working on a video of me driving the truck. Should highlight how straight it drives and show hydro assist's lack of return to center.

EDIT: video

[youtube]9SpY-nf3-fU&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]