I have an issue with the steering in my truck, when I bought the truck the steering wheel was about 90 degrees of going straight forward. The PS pump was leaking and after I nearly drove straigh thru a circulation spot we fixed the pump by replacing the gaskets, no more leaks. After we fixed the pump we noticed the steering gearbox was leaking, since the fluid from the pump and gearbox ended up in the same spot we hadn't noticed that before, the pump was leaking alot more than the gearbox too.
We could tell the PO had taken out the pump to fix it (done with some weird gooey stuff that hardend like plastic and didn't work) we think he also did something to the gearbox.
I'm tired of it leaking and driving with the wheel pointing the wrong way so I want to fix it and I'm hoping someone can help me as to what is really wrong.
The theories I've been given so far:
1. PO claimed they put the steering wheel on wrong after taking it off. (A shop had the steering wheel off and it can only be mounted two ways, right side up or upside down.)
2. Google searches said truck needs alignment. (Truck has been aligned and was/is on point, didn't change anything about the steering wheel.)
3. Alignment shop claim that someone must have hit something really hard with the wheels causing something inside the gearbox to jump a few splines. (A mechanic said this wasn't possible, the gearbox is to tight and would have "exploded".)
4. The mechanic thinks the PO had it apart and put the steering shaft back in the gearbox wrong, ie steering wheel was turned 90 degrees and PO put it back in as if it was facing straight or possibly the steering wheel was straight but the wheels turned.
What the mechanic said makes sense, turning radius going left (if I remember right) is fine but turning radius going right is bad (like a semi-truck) with the wheel turned all the way both ways. Is it possible that the PO put it back toghter wrong like the mechanic thinks?
If not, what else could it be?
We could tell the PO had taken out the pump to fix it (done with some weird gooey stuff that hardend like plastic and didn't work) we think he also did something to the gearbox.
I'm tired of it leaking and driving with the wheel pointing the wrong way so I want to fix it and I'm hoping someone can help me as to what is really wrong.
The theories I've been given so far:
1. PO claimed they put the steering wheel on wrong after taking it off. (A shop had the steering wheel off and it can only be mounted two ways, right side up or upside down.)
2. Google searches said truck needs alignment. (Truck has been aligned and was/is on point, didn't change anything about the steering wheel.)
3. Alignment shop claim that someone must have hit something really hard with the wheels causing something inside the gearbox to jump a few splines. (A mechanic said this wasn't possible, the gearbox is to tight and would have "exploded".)
4. The mechanic thinks the PO had it apart and put the steering shaft back in the gearbox wrong, ie steering wheel was turned 90 degrees and PO put it back in as if it was facing straight or possibly the steering wheel was straight but the wheels turned.
What the mechanic said makes sense, turning radius going left (if I remember right) is fine but turning radius going right is bad (like a semi-truck) with the wheel turned all the way both ways. Is it possible that the PO put it back toghter wrong like the mechanic thinks?
If not, what else could it be?