Supercharged111
Truly Awesome
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2015
- Messages
- 12,705
- Reaction score
- 15,503
Today was less unproductive. I brought an 18x1.5 thread chaser and tap and cleaned up a small burr on the box. The line itself spun perfectly into an O2 bung, so I knew that was good. Noticed the pressure line was against the oil cooler lines, so gave it a tweak, wiggled the line as I spun (laying across the engine with my ass on the passenger side) and it went right down. The return was also a pain, it was difficult to tweak, but I eventually got it too. This truck has that stupid frame loop "cooler" that Schurkey always talks about. I'll get a real cooler for it next time I hit the pull and pay. With the box in I wanted to see if the leak had stopped and it had, but something in the steering skipped on me. I'd been thinking it was the knuckle fatiguing back and forth but this time standing outside the truck I watched the driver side wheel (the good one, I think) fall back to the right as I turned it left. That's definitely something upstream of the center link, either steering box innards are toast or the steering shaft is slipping. Onto the knuckle I went, it came apart fairly easily (save for the axle nut, had to get out the propane torch and 6 foot cheater bar). The lower ball joint never looked right and after removing the upper it quickly became apparent why.
Gravity, hopes, and dreams were all that held this thing together. I failed to snag another pic, that piece is also bent. So there went a chunk of daylight, running down a ball joint and enough press adapters to get the new one in. 2 O'Reilly's and an AutoZone later and I was fully armed with a Precision (that will probably only last a few years) ball joint for forged arms. Removal and install was about the smoothest I've ever experienced, that was a shock given how hard the rest of this pig fights me. Next it was time to transfer the hub over to the new knuckle. First I had to make room for the socket, take a close look at that pic and you'll see how the break infringed on the recess for the socket. First I tried beating the crap out of the knuckle to bend it back down, no dice there. I figured with it being broken it would move easier but it had plenty of meat left on it. Instead, I dropped the angle grinder on it, beat the socket down, and zipped the bolts out. The rest pretty much snapped right back together, but I'm not sure I'm done changing out bent stuff just yet.
I'll have to go compare my 1500 to this, but with a body lift I feel like there should be more clearance with 285s. Maybe the rims have a funky offset? But the truck has been trimmed for big rubber, it must have had bigger shoes in the past. More to come I suppose. It still has a couple/few inches toe out, but if alignment bolts slipped that could be a chunk of that too.
Sorry, the lighting sucks on this pic. To add insult to injury, the new seal stack blew out of the box too. I didn't like the way the clip seated but it seemed like it was in there. I guess not. I yanked the box back out, put it on the bench, and removed the sector shaft. I didn't see a lick of damage there or so much as a flake of metal inside the box though it is not fully disassembled just yet. The splined input had a sandblasted appearance and a couple mushed splined, but overall looked OK and nothing shiny that would indicate to me that the steering shaft was slipping on it. I'm on the hunt for a smoking gun and a cheap fix here. Another thing that I noticed is that the truck turns farther right than left. I had to do that little science experiment with the wheels off of the ground. It'll hit the right stops but not the left stops. The box itself had just over 3 full turns lock to lock and the wheel had something like 2.5 lock to lock. I'm hoping something obvious presents itself when I get the box the rest of the way apart. I have some more YouTube research ahead of me it seems.
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Gravity, hopes, and dreams were all that held this thing together. I failed to snag another pic, that piece is also bent. So there went a chunk of daylight, running down a ball joint and enough press adapters to get the new one in. 2 O'Reilly's and an AutoZone later and I was fully armed with a Precision (that will probably only last a few years) ball joint for forged arms. Removal and install was about the smoothest I've ever experienced, that was a shock given how hard the rest of this pig fights me. Next it was time to transfer the hub over to the new knuckle. First I had to make room for the socket, take a close look at that pic and you'll see how the break infringed on the recess for the socket. First I tried beating the crap out of the knuckle to bend it back down, no dice there. I figured with it being broken it would move easier but it had plenty of meat left on it. Instead, I dropped the angle grinder on it, beat the socket down, and zipped the bolts out. The rest pretty much snapped right back together, but I'm not sure I'm done changing out bent stuff just yet.
You must be registered for see images attach
I'll have to go compare my 1500 to this, but with a body lift I feel like there should be more clearance with 285s. Maybe the rims have a funky offset? But the truck has been trimmed for big rubber, it must have had bigger shoes in the past. More to come I suppose. It still has a couple/few inches toe out, but if alignment bolts slipped that could be a chunk of that too.
You must be registered for see images attach
Sorry, the lighting sucks on this pic. To add insult to injury, the new seal stack blew out of the box too. I didn't like the way the clip seated but it seemed like it was in there. I guess not. I yanked the box back out, put it on the bench, and removed the sector shaft. I didn't see a lick of damage there or so much as a flake of metal inside the box though it is not fully disassembled just yet. The splined input had a sandblasted appearance and a couple mushed splined, but overall looked OK and nothing shiny that would indicate to me that the steering shaft was slipping on it. I'm on the hunt for a smoking gun and a cheap fix here. Another thing that I noticed is that the truck turns farther right than left. I had to do that little science experiment with the wheels off of the ground. It'll hit the right stops but not the left stops. The box itself had just over 3 full turns lock to lock and the wheel had something like 2.5 lock to lock. I'm hoping something obvious presents itself when I get the box the rest of the way apart. I have some more YouTube research ahead of me it seems.
