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Turned steering wheel

TC4x4

TC4x4

1/2 ton status
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Posts
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Location
Michigan
I put a four inch lift on my truck and have made no adjustments to the steering at all, my steering wheel is now turned a third to the right and nott centered anymore, what do i need to do to fix this so i can save some money by doing it myself? Thanks yall :o
 
first question is did you change your pitman arm. chances are the steering wheel got bumped and turned a bit. i'd just leav it but that's just me. take the pitman back off and turn the wheel straight? maybe that'd work?
 
You need to adjust your draglink. Do a quick search, it's been covered a couple of times here.

I say to do a search, only because it will answer your question better than I can.
 
Ok i new that is what its called i just had to remember again what to do, brain fart, thanks guys for the imput.
 
if your steering is correct and nothing needs to be adjusted...just pop your steering wheel off, re-center it and be good.
 
My steering's waay out of line from my 4" lift. Do I need to take it to be properly realigned or can I just adjust my draglink?
 
Randy92782 said:
first question is did you change your pitman arm. chances are the steering wheel got bumped and turned a bit. i'd just leav it but that's just me. take the pitman back off and turn the wheel straight? maybe that'd work?
Click to expand...

on a 4wd box there is only one way the pitman arm goes on. the wheel is turned because the distance between the pitman arm and steering arm has increased. adjusting the draglink will help but a raised steering arm would be a good idea.
 
You'll never get rid of bump steer without returning the drag link to parallel to the ground. I personally prefer raised steering arm.:wink1:
 
readymix said:
parallel to the spring not the ground right?
Click to expand...
GM spent bookoo $$$ on that geometry, and ran it for decades; parallel to the ground. I originally installed a 2" dropped pitman with 2" spring lift and drag link adjust, and that was OK. Then I installed 4"springs. I tried the drag link adjustment and got the steering box centered with the axle center, I got bumpsteer anyway. I sat lotus style, starring at that LF, trying to decide what to change next. I reasoned, the steering arm changes elevation way less (caster?) than the pitman arm (frame), and working with whats on the market, I went with the stock pitman, and a 4"-6" steering arm. Its not perfect in that I think the sweet spot gets smaller as you lift, but once you get it, it works. :wink1:
Keep in touch readymix. :D
 
Makes sense to me. For some reason I always thought that the DL should be parallel to the front arch of the springs. ???

Who knows where I got that from though:dunno:
 
I have the same problem with the steering wheel, its alignment is off by approx 45 degrees when the wheels are pointing straight forward. I haven't installed a lift or anything, it's been that way since I got this K5, and I've put off doing something about it until I had to pull the steering wheel anyway to do some other service work. That time has come now...

Is adjusting the draglink the only way to go for aligning steering wheels? If it wasn't for that little plastic sleeve with the horn button connector spring having to go through a certain hole in the (stock '88) wheel, it would be real simple to just slide the wheel on in any angle I'd see fit, but that little plastic sleeve messes it up. It seems it would be easier to just rotate the sleeve around to fit the wheel, but maybe that's not doable?
 
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