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Steering play. FIXED!

Stomis - I had a similar issue with both my 84 & 87 K5's..you know what fixed it? new front leaf springs and shackles.. the old rubber bushings were shot..

what was happening to me was, I'd go around a corner, and the front axle & leafs would not be totally straight in relation to the truck frame anymore, once I turned the steering wheel back to straight.. the truck would still want to veer right or left, and I had to "snap" the wheel the other way to get it back under control.

see if that helps.

I spent a lot of money thinking the trouble was with the steering itself.
 
4by4bygod said:
Stomis - I had a similar issue with both my 84 & 87 K5's..you know what fixed it? new front leaf springs and shackles.. the old rubber bushings were shot..

what was happening to me was, I'd go around a corner, and the front axle & leafs would not be totally straight in relation to the truck frame anymore, once I turned the steering wheel back to straight.. the truck would still want to veer right or left, and I had to "snap" the wheel the other way to get it back under control.

see if that helps.

I spent a lot of money thinking the trouble was with the steering itself.
Click to expand...


I have poly bushings in the leafs. The only bushings in the truck I havent changed are the upper shackle bushings.

Btw I meant $100 on that axle :D

As far as the shaft goes, its good now I put a ujoint style shaft in from an xj...
 
I just had an opiphony or however you spell it. I noticed since I did my zero rates that my pinion has been down. Infact I think its lower than stock. This is due to the fact that I have the 8in shackles from kurt + a ****t shackle angle + I ditched the shims in the front due to them being beat.

Is the any chance that my caster being off could cause this problem of mine?
 
do your shackles lean to one side? look at the bushing in the upper shackle, since i seen you didn't replace those.
 
My pick up has been doing that since the day I bought it in 2000. I have done the same thing, replaced everything I could think of, and it still does it. I have learned to live with it, I think it is the front end shifting a bit, and the only thing I can figure to fix it is a track bar.
 
So does the body actually take a "set" or is it solely in the steering wheel? IE one side of the vehicle isn't higher/lower than the other?

Friends race car had a shock issue that was affecting the way the frame and suspension were interacting, it would stay higher on the one corner due to the shock.
 
I'm gonna get some pictures of the pinion/caster up in a second. Its definately lower than stock but I dont know if it would affect this problem.

Im beginning to think a trac bar maybe the only way to fix this but why dont I hear more people having this problem?
 
dyeager535 said:
So does the body actually take a "set" or is it solely in the steering wheel? IE one side of the vehicle isn't higher/lower than the other?

Friends race car had a shock issue that was affecting the way the frame and suspension were interacting, it would stay higher on the one corner due to the shock.
Click to expand...


The vehicle does lean a little but towards the last way you turned it because of how soft the springs are. I'm wondering maybe if stiffer shocks would help this. Is there any chance that my shock angle would have an affect? The shocks are somewhat pitched back because I mounted my ford towers when I had the axle in its stock locations. Its an inch forward now.
 
Well I'm fixing my shackle angle tomorrow. I was just on the phone with Kert asking about shims to fix my pinion angle when i threw the problem out there to him. After describing it and telling him about my shackle angle he's or we've or I've or however youd like to say it, come to the conclusion that theres a good chance the shackles are binding from the horid angle. This would explain why the weight of the truck needs to shift the other way for the suspention to resettle straight.

I'm moving my shackle mount forward tomorrow and I really think its gonna fix it...
 
Alright I got half of my shackle problem fixed before I had company over today.

I finally said screw it and found my old digital camera so heres the pics. The bad angle is the passenger side which I havent dont yet. The good angler is the drivers which me and my dad did this morning. I also snapped a picture of my pinion angle.

DSC00633.JPG

DSC00635.JPG

DSC00634.JPG
 
Well well well, Kurt hit the nail on the head. Inadequate suspension movement was the cause of my problem. The wheel offsetting was coming from body movement from turns. The deeper route was as I said the fact that the truck need the momentum and weight of a turn for the front springs to budge.

I fixed the other sides shackle angle and took her for a test drive. Turns out it fixed it. Now the wheel only offsets a fraction of what it did and once you drive straight for a second or two and the body straightens out it goes back in line.

O yeah the front of my truck actually friggen flexes now! Another HUGE plus!

w00t!
 
Sorry - I must be tired. I read this a couple of times and couldn't figure out what you did to fix it.

Did you install 15* axle shims to straighten the drive line angle which also correct the caster angle?

Help the short bus student here.:doah:

Thanks
 
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