bigragu

Ran into a ditch hard last week while chasin' a herd of elk and on the way back to camp I noticed the steering wheel is cocked to the left 45 degrees. I went to Big O that next day and they re-alligned it and checked all front end structures and all checks out OK. Steering is still cocked. It does not pull at all. Big O says that fix is beyond them, and feel that it skipped a tooth or two at the steering gear box. What do you all suggest I do to fix it?

hoghead

I installed a borgeson steering shaft and the wheel was not ligned up after i put the new one on. I lived with it for 6 months, then I pulled it in the shop made sure the tires were straight pulled the front wheel disconected the steering shaft. had to have someone hold the wheel in position while i reconected it. that took care of my problem. by the way borgeson steering shaft is worth the money drives like a new truck.

Trebor

When I did the Borgeson shaft I ended up with the same problem.
I wasn't about to remove the shaft and grind another flat spot on the splines as it already had two. I simply removed the steering wheel which isn't indexed (with the steering box disconnected it will spin in either direction forever and it wasn't center marked), and put it on loose and drove it down the driveway and reinstalled it in the straight position. Had I known this earlier I would not have had to grind a second flat spot on the steering box's splined shaft.

2stroke

or..... take it to a real shop that can fix it.

gman07

I just had my steering "fixed" and I've got the same problem. My parents said they'd have the loose steering fixed (as a birthday present), but now that the truck's back from the shop, the steering is still loose and the wheel is off 45* to the right...

If I'm going to install the Borgeson shaft, what do I need to do (explained in dummy terms; I'm no good with steering/suspension stuff) to make sure the wheel's straight when I get the shaft on?

Thanks for the help guys.

flashgordon

What the problem is...........

YOUR steering box has shifted on the frame and will have to be loosened and repositioned on the frame

Check the reinforcement and the frame for cracks while your there!!!!

The same thing happened to me and and lived with it for a couple of years!

Then a read a factory chry T.S.B bulletin that told about this problem!

Take a good look at your Gear box and the frame you will see were it has shifted!

Micaiahfied

gman- the borg shaft is a simple install, there's a write up in the sticky i believe. pull the truck up to where you are woring on it with the front wheels straight. take apart the rag joint under the hood, don't spin the wheel after this (tape it to the dash or something, don't want to hurt that little clockspring) hardest part for me was getting the punch out of the old shaft... place a large hunk of metal on the back side of the shaft to absorb the shock from the hammer, then follow the simple install instructions included. once you get it all together and tight take a drive to see if the wheel is straight. if it's not i agree with trebor, pull the steering wheel put it on loose and take a drive, line it up and tighten it down! it really does feel a lot better after the install.

Micaiahfied

bigragu, have you noticed that the truck turns tighter in one direction than the other? when i got one of my vehicles the fender behind the drivers wheel was crunched. the truck turns amazingly tight to the left (36inch frame extention) but to the left it takes about 5-6 lanes of traffic to u-turn. i'm pretty sure when it was hit it popped a tooth.

gman07

Thanks. What does pulling the steering wheel involove? I'd check my FSM, but I'm at school right now

I'll get a shaft on the way and see if I can finally get this thing fixed.

flashgordon

Hay guys......what am i missing here? How will a borgeson shaft fix a crooked steering wheel?

Ace

You really should look into taking the truck somewhere else if an alignment shop thinks the answer is a skipped tooth in the steering box. That's darn near impossible. If it "could" happen the steering would already be so sloppy you'd have a hard time steering it between two fence posts.

One spline on the box input shaft is equal to about a quarter turn on the steering wheel. As long as the wheels are straight ahead and the box is centered, everything else is totally arbitrary. You wouldn't have to grind much to move the shaft one spline. It's not exact enough as it is to even matter. As long the set screw is close enough to hit even the edge of the spot, it's good to go.

Nature of the front leaf spring suspension is that it doesn't take much shifting of the springs on the axle (small fractions of an inch) to greatly affect steering geometry. Depending of the frame (hit, wrecked, warped, whatever) and possible manufacturing variances, even the 1/8" or so of play around the centering holes on the housing and perches may not allow you to to get it right. I was annoyed for the longest time due an inability to get it spot on. Even after the Borgenson, and carefully measuring the square of the axles (which were exactly spot on) it still wanted to pull to the right, and took about a 20 degree set to the right at the wheel. I finally tore the springs out, swapped a leaf to correct a 1/2" height imbalance and dremeled out another 1/8" from the locater holes on the perch, housing and ubolt plates. I reassembled it with the front axle a total of 1/4" inch out of square (1/8" each side) to the left and voila - it tracks straight and centered after moving it back another spline on the steering shaft.

So it looks like a quarter inch square on the axles also equals a quarter turn on the steering shaft. And they say these things aren't engineered to fine tolerances! Bah...

apwatson50

So your truck was pulling to the right, and you fixed it by "un squaring" the axles? Do you have any tire wear problems on the front?

My truck pulls to the right, and I had a shop check the alignment and they told me the left wheel had about 1deg more negative camber than the right and thats what is causing my pull. Which is probably right because the inside on the left tire wears faster on the inside than the outside.

BearKiller

I am gonna have to agree with FlashG on this one, concerning the question pertaining to the elk chaser.

You have either scooted your steering box on the frame, or scooted the axle back on the spring, possibly both.

bigragu

I thank all for your advice, I'll look into all your suggestions and if I can't fix it myself, a good buddy from HS owns a tire shop close by and he seems to think that is an easy fix and doesn't understand why Big O couldn't fix it. On my other truck, listed below in my sig, when I first purchased it, it had the death wobble from left to right and he was able to correct it like brand new. Thanks, guys!

EClancy

This happens?????
The reason i ask is that my drivers front tire will hit the back of the fender really good when turning to the left or going over a bump, but i cant get the pass front tire to hit the back of the fender no matter what happens.......just one more thing to look into