The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Please help me figure out steering issue!!

I have a '49 1/2 ton, 3" dropped axle, rebuilt original brakes and rebuilt original ball and socket steering. New kingpins and new-ish wheel bearings. I am running radial tires. I did shorten the pitman arm and swapped the tie rods to under the steering arms for the drop. I've lowered the rear to the same height as the front, so the truck is sitting level. I have driven this truck since I pulled out of the woods and dropped a inline 250 motor and got it on the highway again. I have slowly done the mods and rebuilding as I have the money and time. It has always had bad road manners. It tracks straight until I hit a slight bump and then it just goes where it wants. Sometimes even without a bump it will just start roaming but not often. I have tried to adjust the steering box but not sure if I did it correctly. The only other thing is I think the passenger side axle hole for the kingpin is very slightly wallowed. The kingpin can slide all the way through. So I probably need to get oversized kingpins.
My main questions are: would the kingpin being a bit loose give me these steering issues? How do I know when my steering box is worn and needs to be rebuilt or replaced? and are there any other things I've overlooked that could be giving me these problems? I'm trying to get my truck steering like it should to drive to Austin for the Lone Star Roundup show in April. Thanks for any help guys!

yes, one sloppy kingpin can cause strange behavior, not to mention backyard engineering on steering geometry - and you don't mention having done a proper alignment, surely the caster, camber and toe were altered with that work, sounds like there's at least a bump steer problem .... hope you have an understanding insurance company

Bill

You need a frame and alignment shop preferably with some ole guy in there who has been doing this stuff for 20 years and who does not need a computer. A computer probably does not have your setup entered in it so your rig would completely confuse it.

Dan Bentler

You might want to see if your drag link is sitting horizontal. Also, you should check to see if the steering box is at dead center when the wheels are straight ahead. If this isn't the case it will not feel or steer correctly. I wonder when you get a dropped axle whether the camber is correct. That is something you can check with a carpenter's square and a level floor.

Good place to start is get a shop manual it will take you step by step in helping with setting up you're front end.You can get one from one of the venders or it's free at" old manuals project " I like to keep mine close to the work bench so if I have a problem it's there ,I had a problem much the same as yours but my king pins were good it turned out to be a caster angle issue ,I needed more so I got some at a spring shop and added them now shes steering good .Steering is not somthing to take lightly it needs to be right ,get the shop manual and take it to a shop and have it cheeked out after you set it up as the manual says to.


Pete

truckernix nailed it. Check your drag link, it must be at or near level. It probably isn't anymore. There are a number of things you can do to fix it, shortening the pitman arm a little is a good first step. You can also raise the steering box up using a steel plate for a bracket (you can see pics of how I did mine in my dropped axle folder) or you can flip the drag link, or heat and bend the steering arm down.

Check the online shop manual for the procedure to check and adjust your steering box.

I know I need an alignment but I havn't had it done yet because I know there's an issue I need to fix before I do. The truck has had steering issues before the new drop axle thats what leads me to beleive that its the steering box or king pins. I shortened the pitman arm and heated and bent the steering arms a bit to make the drag link level. I had called a local ol' school garage/ restoration shop and I got sticker shock because they charge $80 an hour!

"Please help me figure out steering issue!!"

I think I figured it out. Someone decided that the stock suspension, which millions of trucks have run millions of miles on, was wrong so they took a torch to it and started heating and bending.

The 80 dollar an hour labor for a pro to look at it doesn't sound bad when you stop to think that, if a pro with the knowledge and proper tools looks at it, he probably wont spend hours chasing his, tail changing parts till it's fixed.

Some thing else that could be a problem is your springs. If the bushings and pins are loose, it will allow the front axle to move independent of the rest of the steering mechanism making it wander whenever a bump is hit or whenever the road changes camber, especially if road is rutted by truck traffic.

Caster angle is another good place to start looking at. With out enough caster, the steering is extremely light with out any feed back to the wheel. To much caster and the steering wheel pulls out of your hand when returning to zero after a right or left turn in town. Adding or removing caster can change the length of the draglink slightly.

If this was mine, I would start with a shop manual and adjust the steering box. It doesn't matter what you have done to the rest of the steering, if the box is loose or worn, it will never steer right. Pay close attention to the straight ahead adjustment and mark the column and wheel so you know 100% that the gear box is centered. Then, when you attach the pitman arm and need to turn the steering wheel off center to do so, start looking at the linkage and find out why its not staying centered. And never just turn the steering wheel on the shaft to keep it aligned.

Joe

Be sure and have that quote chiseled onto your tombstone! It sounds like cheap life insurance to me. A couple of tons of truck with unpredictable steering is a deathtrap for you and everybody else on the road. Have you fabricated an adjustable-length drag link so the steering gear can be centered and the sector preload adjusted with the wheels pointed straight ahead? If not, that's the first thing to do.
Jerry

Shortering the pitman arm is not a good idea.It gives you less control,it also puts more strain on the steering gear so if you have ANY wear at all it will compound it.

just curious, how did you shorten the pitman arm, mine is solid one piece forged steel, (maybe cast high nodular iron) either way it can't be adjusted unless you cut it and weld it back together.