J Lent

For the last 2 weeks I've noticed a little wandering in the steering. I've had the DSS for a year & a new steering box was installed by a local shop about 3 months ago & it is usually nice driving. The wandering has been gradually getting worse & I checked the front suspension, but found nothing wrong...balljoints had a little play, but not enough to cause the wander. I took the truck in for a alignment today & the tech tested the components before aligning it. He noticed that my pitman arm had some play & that the locknut wasn't installed behind the nut when the new steering box was installed. I brought the truck home & installed a new lockwasher & the wandering is gone. Just a heads up, make sure you guys have the locknuts installed, you wouldn't believe the difference in steering since I fixed mine. Why would a guy not install a locknut on a major component? WOW!!!

dieselman2300

He probably LOST it.
Guess you wont be taking the truck back to him. Huh?

J Lent

Definately not! The business has shut down since then, guess we know why. I usually do my own work, but was busy running equipment & didn't have time. I figured who can't install a new steering box, guess I know who now. I'm just glad it was caught before I was dead.

12valvetom

My truck wonders and there is a good half turn before it does anything... Now i'm gonna check mine

Valv

Happened almost same to me but my case were the 3 boilts holding steering gear. They were 1 turn loose. Nobody ever worked on it, I guess they just loosened by themselves.
After tightening them up my truck has no more wandering !!!!!!!!!!
It's tight as it gets.

Check yours this weekend, they are the 3 large bolts that hold the steering gearbox to the frame.

J Lent

Yeah I've heard of the boxes coming loose, but never happened to me. The wandering that I've learned to be most common is track bar, balljoints or steering gear. This is what has been driving me crazy because the gear box is new & the 3rd gen bar is only 6 months old.