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Steering issues Need help please!!! (UPDATE)

blazindorito

blazindorito

1/2 ton status
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I can not drive this truck on the streets it feels very unsafe when I drive it.

I went High Steer. I already had the knuckles drilled and I said what the hell.

I had death wobble before I went high steer and ram assist. I don't have it now but when I hit a bump or something I can feel the left side of the truck want to get the Death Wobble. It doesn't get it but i can barely feel it.

The steering is also really loose. I constantly have to turn the wheel left and right to drive in a straight line.

This weekend I retorqued the bolts to 150lbs on the U BOLTS, Checked all tie rods, and everything under there. The axles were gone thru before I bought them. I am thinking that it might be the gear box that needs to be gone thru.

I am running out of ideas to fix this. It doesn't feel safe to drive on streets.

A lot of WANDERING when I drive it, could it be my castor angle?

What else should I look at? How should the steering feel with a 6"lift all springs, high steer, crossover and all new tie rods. Should it feel sloppy or tight drive straight on a street?
 
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Do you currently have the HYD ram assist installed?
 
Castor is the typical culprit after adding lifts. Did you shim the axle after you lifted it? if not, that would be something to check out. The steering should be tight. With 6" of lift you're not going to be a street racer, but you should be able to control the vehicle easily. You say that when you hit a bump you feel it trying to start a wobble, does the truck jerk sideways when you hit bumps? That's another indicator of castor and/or toe-in. What kind/size tires are you running? If it is all nice and shimmed up I would suggest an alignment. You can do it yourself, but it may be beneficial to bring it to a shop for that. When lifted right a truck should handle like it did stock, with the expected shortcomings of not cornering as fast, perhaps even a larger turning radius.

Cross over steering, coupled with ram assist should make your truck handle exceptionally well. Have you checked ball-joints and all other moving steering parts? I assume you have, but it is a question to ask.
 
NV_K5 Yes I do have the ram installed.

Cowboy_80 when I installed the springs it came with a shim to correct it. I have not currently checked to make sure castor angle is correct. I will do so this afternoon and report back.

"You say that when you hit a bump you feel it trying to start a wobble, does the truck jerk sideways when you hit bumps?" YES, it wants to go to the left. It also happens when I hit the brakes when someone cuts me off, jerks to the left.

I am currently running 37" tires.

This thing drives no where near stock. It is scary to drive this.
yes, all other moving parts have been checked , ball joints, tie rods, and steering shaft.

38377k5
No, i have not checked wheel bearings. When I bought the axles they were completely gone thru so figured I didn't need to. I will check wheel bearings tomorrow morning.


Thank you guys for helping out. I will check these things out tomorrow and Friday and report back and tell you what I found.
Thanks. HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
 
blazindorito said:
No, i have not checked wheel bearings. When I bought the axles they were completely gone thru so figured I didn't need to. I will check wheel bearings tomorrow morning.
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You don't need to take anything apart, just jack up the front and and see if the wheel moves in and out any.
 
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well.

The jerking when you hit the brakes is another problem. I had the same problem on my K5 before I swapped axles. Pulled to the left too. On wet roads it would lock up the tire. I tried bleeding the brakes but that didn't help. Before I bought new wheel cylinders I swapped axles, so I'm not sure if that was the fix for that or not. Most likely though.

If it came with shims, then the castor should be fine. It only jerks to the left though? Even if you hit a pothole on the right? Are there any sticky spots when turning?

Check to make sure you do have toe-in. Point the tires straight ahead and measure the front-to-front and rear-to-rear of your front wheels. The front-to-front should be slightly less, not sure how much less.
 
If you have shims under the front springs they are decreasing your caster and making the truck track worse (i.e. it will wander much easier).

Cowboy_80 said:
Check to make sure you do have toe-in. Point the tires straight ahead and measure the front-to-front and rear-to-rear of your front wheels. The front-to-front should be slightly less, not sure how much less.
Click to expand...

Here's directions for this that I recently answered for someone in a PM:



Put a piece of tape in the middle of the tread on both front tires (lined up with the hub). Draw a vertical line in marker on each piece of tape. Measure the distance between the two marks. Now roll the truck forward or back until the pieces of tape are on the back side of the tires. Measure the distance between the two marks. The front measurement should be 1/16-1/8" smaller than the measurement on the back (i.e. tires toed in).

alignment.jpg


Make sense?

-Chris
 
Yes makes a lot of sense with the visual picture of using tape. I will be working on it tonight and tomorrow. Thanks all for your help!
 
Make sure the wheel bearings are properly installed as well. I can't tell you how many axles I've bought that the bearings were never installed with a torque wrench but rather someone guessing that it was tight enough. Every single time I find them too loose.
 
One way to check the gear box is to just rotate the steering wheel while the truck if off and see how much play is in it before the pitman arm starts to move. The more free play you have, the more wandering there will be.

If you check the forums, you'll see lots of people report this kind of problem right after getting a truck. I was scared of mine at first, but am kinda used to it now. I think these old truck just didn't have great steering to begin with.

These old trucks just aren't the same as the new stuff with rack and pinion steering. I remember watching TV shows from the 70's where they had people pretending to drive a car and they would sit there rotating the wheel back and forth every 3 seconds. I thought it was just acting, but after driving these old trucks, maybe that's just what you had to do to keep the thing on the road. :)
 
blazindorito said:
Yes I do I have shims under the springs before they attach to the spring perch. That's how they came from the factory for the lift.
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Those shims make the driveshaft angle better but decrease the amount of caster that your axle has. Caster is what keeps your truck going straight down the road.

How much lift do you have? I almost guarantee that removing the shims will solve your problem.
 
38377k5 said:
Those shims make the driveshaft angle better but decrease the amount of caster that your axle has. Caster is what keeps your truck going straight down the road.

How much lift do you have? I almost guarantee that removing the shims will solve your problem.
Click to expand...


That's odd, I notice a few of you guys are saying to remove the shims to fix the problem, but I had to add shims to fix mine. The way I understood it was that the arched springs mounted the axle at a different angle than the factory negative arch, so the shims were used to put it back the way it was. It could be a difference between cheap lifts and good lifts of course...
 
Ok fellas here's an update. I spent last week checking everything that was suggested and it is all good. It did not solve the problem. I put another gear box and still the same thing. I finally gave up and sent it to a local shop 4wheel specialties on Sepulveda (not 4wheel parts) to look at it. The head tech guy Ed could not figure it out also. Checked everything and it is all good but still scary to drive (head tech guy agreed w/me). HE is thinking that the hydraulic ram from PSC is doing to good of a job w/ the 37's I have on it. He said that if I had 44 tires it would be nice and tight. He is going to take off the ram and drive it like that yesterday to see if that is it.

I don't know what else to do other than put the 10bolt back but no way in hell i'm doing that.

I'm going over today to see what happened.

Stay tuned for more info.
 
I highly doubt it has anything to do with the hydro assist. Have you replaced the "rag" joint yet on the steering shaft/box? These get mushy after 30 some years of use and most people never replace them during all those years. Once you add a lift and larger tires you only make that rag joint wear out alot quicker.
 
I have read what you have done and I still would say to toe in the front a little more. What axle are you running?? If it is a D60, I would check your kingpin tightness, or even add a fender washer to put a hair more pressure on them.
 
Leper I will try that tomorrow when I get it back.

I was actually thinkin of taking it to an alignment shop to get all 4 wheels aligned.
 
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