neverhme

had a local shop install new ball joints at 115.000, now the steering is sticky at center, had alighnment, no problems there, what could ahve gone wrong?, replaced track bar with a mopar, about a month before, so I know it's not to do with that. any suggestions.

John Faughn

What dose the shop say ?
If they did it right , then it should have at least stayed the same , but should have improved , not gotten worse .

TIMMY22

you say "sticky". you mean if you let the wheel slip in the palm of your hand comming out of a turn it will not "return to center"?

if so they may have over tightened the adjustment screw on the steering gear.

neverhme

yes tim, thats what it does, makes me nervous around alot of traffic, and who knows how I'll countersteer in a snow slide?

It only is a problem on the first 1/4 of steer, so I make a turn, it returns almost, but not all the way, get it straight on the highway and let go of the wheel it'll track good for a mile, touch the wheel though and I have to chase it.Took it back once, guy tried to tell me the tie rod was frozen, truck is allways lubed and all is fine there, he was searching, what shops do around here is get it back, charge you again for anything they may have to redo that they messed up, I really thought they would loosen up bye know, been 10,000 since done, I'll live with it or break it,then let someone else get a crack at it.

~Angry Tractor~

My truck had a pull to the right since I bought it so it didnt wander because I was always pulling the steering wheel to compensate for the pull to the right. I got that straightened out and now there is all kinds of play in the steering. It wanders pretty good too. I think the steering box is wore out and I just never noticed it until I got it going straight. I know what you are saying about that shop. Although there are some legit shops I think they are hard to find, at least around here. I work with a guy that used to work at a Dodge dealership. He tells me alot of things they do just to get a car or truck back in the shop. I recently went to a local shop to get a seal for my timing cover. The guy tried to tell my I needed to have my whole timing case replaced. I was just there for a seal so I could tab my KDP. He must not have realized I knew what I was talking about. He told me in order to tab my KDP I would have pull the cam and make sure the push rods wouldn't drop down in the case and the man hours it would take. While I'm sure he's right about all that my truck didn't need it. It wasn't leaking oil. While he is pitching his sale I am thinking to myself this guy is nuts. So when he was done I asked If he could order me a seal and he said sure and asked for my name and number. Haven't heard from him since. I wound up getting the kit from TST. Thats the kind of service we get around here. A good honest mechanic is worth his weight in gold. I have heard some really good things about a shop 70 miles from here and thats where I'll be going from now on. Too bad I have to drive that far for honesty. Sorry for the rant but I hate it when people try to take advantage of others when they think they dont know anything.

red diesel

I noticed the same problem after I had my Ball joints ,track bar, front axle seals and axle u joints replaced . First time out after repairs were done it felt like the truck was going to drive right off the road. Brought it back to shop and was told to drive it awhile to let everything seat in.
If problem persists bring it back. Well it didn't get any better. So they started to adjust steering gear 1/8 turn at a time once a month untill it felt better. It never did get any better after 4 adjustments so steering gear was probably no good. I had a new steering gear put in ( at a different shop , not because the first shop did a bad job just was the cheapest way to go .) The new steering gear(a rebuild) was as bad as the old one. So I thought maybe the new gear was loose from the factory, so I started to adjust the gear myself . It just got worse . I brought it back to the original shop and they told me in their experience that some rebuilt steering gears were often not rebuild properly or only the top end was rebuilt. They had a local rebuilder that they use and was only slightly more expensive. But before I dished out any more money they suggested I loosen the gear back to where I stared and loosen it off an 1/8 of a turn untill it improved or got worse.
It helped so I did it some more and the wander has greatly improved. In fact It felt as though the steering got slightly stiffer when the gear was loosened.
To loosen I turned the bolt counter clock-wise, unless it has reverse threads and I actually tightend it ? So maybe the new gear was too tight.
Just after I put in the new steering gear I put on the dss steering stabilizer but because the steeing gear was out of adjustment the dss benifit was not noticed. I believe though that the dss is a good add on.

tumper93

A quick adjustement to a steering gear can be done by loosening the lock nut then turn the adjuster down slowly until it bottoms against the worm gear, then back off 1/8 turn. This seems to be the best setting on the cars and trucks I have worked on for steering gear slop over the years. They all return correctly and have no wondering issues. You also need to start the truck and have someone rock the steering wheel from side to side as you look at all the joints. If the move then you are going to have a wondering issue and funky steering also. Another thing that can cause steering wonder in our trucks is the steering stabilizer shock no longer doing much.

PaulDaisy

This is why I have always worked myself on my vehicles (and on friends' vehicles). I worked at a transmission shop in SC for a while and what they pulled on customers was terrible. I finally quit after they forgot to put antifreeze in a car that they worked on, test drove it, warped the head and charged the customer $800 to rebuild the head . I just couldn't put up with it any longer, and went on my own, until I moved to CO. Not saying many shops would try this but there are dishonest people out there, indeed.
-P