Steering pulled off center...?

[VW_Factor]

So. Truck has been very well used, its seen worse. Hit something "immoveable" with the drivers tire/wheel while I had it turned slightly to the left. Kind of bounced back off of it, with the tire bouncing it back.

Steering wheel is 180 turned which way or the other (don't recall which way it went).

The steering arm from the steering box isn't bent or broken, neither is the connecting drag link from drivers to passenger wheel. Frame I guess could have bent up a bit where the steering box is, but again, its not obvious if it is. No cracks in the frame in the area either.

There isn't much else I can think of that would get bent out of shape pulling the steering wheel off center.

This happened to anyone before? Next time I get some spare money saved to the side from my other projects I'll get it down and aligned (if it's actually out of shape don't want to ruin the tires).

Otherwise to me seems strange to have something like that without obvious damage I would imagine.

 

[dirtygoat]

Could be the steering box itself... Sector shaft, Pitman arm, something inside the box...

 

[454Sub]

Check the steering shaft. Not the rag joint end but the other end. If the truck has a lift, that end can spin in that bell piece. Its almost like a ujoint, but instead of round caps it has square caps. It gets real close to the edge of the bell after you lift it and can spin but pop back in. Look into that.

 

[VW_Factor]

Check the steering shaft. Not the rag joint end but the other end. If the truck has a lift, that end can spin in that bell piece. Its almost like a ujoint, but instead of round caps it has square caps. It gets real close to the edge of the bell after you lift it and can spin but pop back in. Look into that.

It does have a body lift, that makes sense. I'll check that out.

 

[454Sub]

Its hard to explain on paper, but if you was to remove the seal on the bell thing, which is attached to the steering column, you would get it. I would recommend an XJ Jeep steering shaft and be done with that pos. A friend of mine nursed his along and when we was out on the trail it freewheeled as the square ujoint dealy spun in the bell and he smashed a tree going downhill.

And as a bonus, you can get an XJ shaft for like 10$ at a wrecking yard, and its a 15min bolt up, only need to file/grind a slot on the steering column stub for the XJs pinch bolt to pinch the collar on.

 

[Fred_M1010]

It could also be a sheered center pin in the leaf pack,
moving the axle slightly backwards.

 

[VW_Factor]

Checked the little bell thing, and it didn't appear out of shape. Picked up a used steering box, and bolted that in today.

Steering feel is back to normal now. So something in the old box stripped or "got clearanced".

Anyway, only thing now really is that it used to run fairly sharply left and right. Now only at left lock will it turn sharp. Its quite noticeable. When I've got some more time I'll take a closer look at it. I didn't think there were any "lock stops" for the steering on these trucks, but I guess there could be.

 

[chulisohombre]

You could have put the pitman arm not with the steering box centered. You need to count the turns on the box and recenter the pitman arm on the box. That or adjust the drag link to give the right turn more leverage. Can't remember if you need to Lengthen or shorten it though. Pretty sure shortening it will give it more pull to turn to the right more.

 

[VW_Factor]

While the pitman may have been moved on the old box, the new to me "used" box came with the pitman already installed.

While this doesn't discount that it may have been off center to begin with, just strange that its the same as the first as far as turning radius.

Perhaps a balljoint is bent or something? All the rods are straight.

I'll investigate more and report back when I get the time to mess with it some more.

 

[chulisohombre]

While the pitman may have been moved on the old box, the new to me "used" box came with the pitman already installed.

While this doesn't discount that it may have been off center to begin with, just strange that its the same as the first as far as turning radius.

Perhaps a balljoint is bent or something? All the rods are straight.

I'll investigate more and report back when I get the time to mess with it some more.

Center you wheels and count how many turns it takes to get to Lock in either direction if one side Is More than the other the Box isn't centered. Some boxes are quicker that others. The pitman arm should be splines with a keyway so it can't go on wrong. Unless someone did something to it and now it's off. Internally the steering box can only go so far each direction when the gears end. Could be one turn off when you put it in.