Steering wander

[dirtautoguy]

Upon further inspection this is what I found.

The idler arm is solid no matter how much I pry on it, beat on it or try to move it it is solid.

The driver side of the steering setup had a lot of flex up and down.(towards the ground and the sky)

Upon further examination of that the pitman arm is slipping up and down on the gear box shaft when the wheel turns.

I was able to get a wrench on the nut but couldn’t get it to tighten anymore. When I put it on I used a air impact till it couldn’t tighten anymore. Today I even put a big cheater on the wrench and went untill I felt like something might give and stopped. It may have tightened a little but not a appreciable amount.

The only other thing I saw was that the Inner tie rod on the passenger side had just the slightest amount of slop. I had to put my hand on it to feel it. The inner and outer tie rods are the oldest items in the steering system but they should not be wore out by any means...... they have maybe 15000 miles on them.

I believe the pitman arm is mostly to blame for what’s going on but I’m not real sure how to go about fixing it.... I’m not sure if it needs to be tighter or something is defective. They both were put on last month.

I’m not against doing the tie rods again but I’ll have to wait and save up. I’d probably get mevotech or Moog ones. I don’t remember what the current ones are.

 

[Schurkey]

Missing a washer or a spacer of some sort on the Pitman shaft?

 

[Supercharged111]

Missing a washer or a spacer of some sort on the Pitman shaft?

Pitman shaft is tapered, not seeing how a spacer would fix anything here? What kind of pitman was used? A POS off brand?

 

[phatphuck]

Hate to come back to it, but when is the last time you rotated your tires? Il m just a proponent of checking the cheap stuff first.

 

[dirtautoguy]

No worries I had the tires rotated with my alignment it was time for it anyway less than a month ago.

It’s a napa pitman arm. Although it was their cheaper line because I was strapped for money with everything else I had done to the truck and hadn’t planned on the pitman arm.

I’m hoping the simple answer is the pitman arm is just a pos and I can take it back to the parts store.

 

[TheAutumnWind]

They are Moog problem solver ball joints.

Both front hubs were done last month with the ball joints

The hubs are timken

Good choices there

 

[TheAutumnWind]

No worries I had the tires rotated with my alignment it was time for it anyway less than a month ago.

It’s a napa pitman arm. Although it was their cheaper line because I was strapped for money with everything else I had done to the truck and hadn’t planned on the pitman arm.

I’m hoping the simple answer is the pitman arm is just a pos and I can take it back to the parts store.

Sounds like that may be the culprit

I know you've done 2 new ones but are we sure that the steering box is good? Not rare to get junk straight of the box. I may have missed you mentioning this earlier on somewhere.

 

[Supercharged111]

No worries I had the tires rotated with my alignment it was time for it anyway less than a month ago.

It’s a napa pitman arm. Although it was their cheaper line because I was strapped for money with everything else I had done to the truck and hadn’t planned on the pitman arm.

I’m hoping the simple answer is the pitman arm is just a pos and I can take it back to the parts store.

I bought a cheap pitman arm once. Lasted 2.5 years before I noticed it was sloppy again. Its Moog replacement only went about 6 years before it developed slop too.

 

[TheAutumnWind]

Rag joints been replaced.

I cannot find any loose components with one tire in the air, both tires in the air, or having someone steer back and forth while watching everything work either.

It’s very influenced by the shape/ruts of the road. The steering wheel stays straight but the truck does not. So to keep straight the wheel is crooked.now that being said a lot of the road on my daily commute I could straighten the wheel and let go and it would go straight down the road.

I used Moog ball joints last month when I redid a lot of that stuff

The tires are Goodyear wrangler Duratracs. They have been on for a while and have probably about a year left in them.

I wish I knew my alignment specs but their printer was broken both times they alligned it. I think the next alignment will be done by a different shop

I would consider eliminating the rag joint entirely.

 

[phatphuck]

I would consider eliminating the rag joint entirely.

Yeah this. If it's a 1500 truck non evo I'd do this asap.