Wandering truck

[greatwhitenorth]

Anyone have an idea of why my 78 K25 would pull to the side pretty hard when on gravel, but only minimally on pavement??

Passenger side tie-rod end?
Ball joints?

Gonna jack her up tommorow and check so if anyone has any ideas of what it might be it would be grealty appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Grim-Reaper]

thats a good place to start. Hung brake calipers are another thing to check. U-Bolts, Rear brakes. wheel bearing problems. Check where the steering box is bolted to the frame. prone to cracks there.

 

[alta-aj]

Any chance that you've had the front axle off? I've got a '69 swb 4x4 that came from the factory with the passenger side spring alignment bolt not in the axle saddlehole. For about twenty years it did a similar thing until I did a restoration and unbolted the front axle!! By the way, do your front tires 'cup'? That was anothersymptom.

After that I'd have the alignment checked.

 

[alta-aj]

Any chance that you've had the front axle off? I've got a '69 swb 4x4 that came from the factory with the passenger side spring alignment bolt not in the axle saddlehole. For about twenty years it did a similar thing until I did a restoration and unbolted the front axle!! By the way, do your front tires 'cup'? That was anothersymptom.

After that I'd have the alignment checked.

 

[greatwhitenorth]

Yeah, the diff was dropped when I put the front lift in (Dec). At the same time I swapped out my bent tie-rod for a straight one from beside the shop.. I thougth it had good ends, but then again I'm no mechanic...

After that I took it for an aligmnent, and the guy told me the drag link was toast.. which it was (tons of slop in steering, and every truck hauling trains almost blew me off the road).. so last week I get around to putting the new draglink in, and back for an alignment (different shop, moved up north) and these guys tell me that my ball joints are toast and the tie-rod ends are toast.

I hate hearing [censored] like that from a shop when I ask them to install the part and do the best you can aligning it... sheesh, sucks being away from home for working on your truck.

We'll see what tommorows inspection finds.

 

[FL84K5]

Mine did the same thing. It was fine on pavement, but off pavement on our dirt roads it would pull to the right every time I hit the smallest bump or pothole. Replacing the tirerod ends and steering stabilizer cured it.

 

[greatwhitenorth]

Well, I had a buddy help me, and We could see no play at all in any of the ball joints, but there was some slop in the tie-rod ends.. Guess thats my problem.

Thanks again.