cnielsen4130

i got a deal on a 2002 CTD longbed , QC 6 speed, and have been working on it for the past few weeks, i have noticed a bunch of stuff that has been messed with. I think it had a big lift at sometime, and was taken off. The front end is the part that is bugging me the most, the steering wheel isnt lining up straight and level when driving straight, and i noticed the steering box has been shimmed out like a 1/4'' - 1/2'' with steel plate piece welded in between it and the frame. Also a piece of steel plated on the side of the frame where it thru bolts. it doesnt look like a repair, that frame isnt smashed or anything, it looks like a shim job of some sort, would that have done this because it was lifted real high, and its a janky way of modifying it? I need help figuring out what this truck has these things done to it. I plan on rebuilding the front, and taking the steering box out, and grinding these plates off.

mopar-or-no-car

Maybe the frame had cracked there and they plated it to repair the crack? I dont know if I would take the plates off withe it being welded and drilled and bolted thru maybe they would have weakened the frame if removed. As far as the steering wheel not lineing up straight that is an easy fix. I believe the bar that connects the steering box to the passenger side wheel has a sleeve on it that you can adjust to center the wheel.

RPegram

The chasis probably cracked there since the plate has been welded on both sides. Here is a link to a product to prevent this:

http://www.solidsteel.biz/product_dss.htm

The only way to install this now would probably be to remove the plate between gear and chasis which you had planned on doing anyway. Not an overly common problem, but these areas are known to crack.

patdaly

I wouldn't take those plates off for anything, as others have mentioned, it was probably done to fix a cracked frame.

TO re-center your wheel, all you need to do is to shorten the link between the pittman arm and the axle. Likely they never did that after they fixed the frame.

Busboy

It could also be an attempt to stiffen up the frame instead of using the DSS. I'm not sure if a plow would fit with a DSS. I also agree with leaving the plates in place.

dieselfreak21

An alingment probably needs to be done. The track Bar has probably been replaced and every time I have replaced it the steering wheel is off. An alingment fixes it up.