Recently finished replacing most of the front end: Upper control arms with ball joints/bushings, lower ball joints/bushings, centerlink, idler arm and tie rod ends/sleeves. Mostly Moog parts except stuffed upper control arms (eBay) and idler arm.

After a fresh alignment the truck is twitchy like it is toed out, will measure when I get a chance. Turning radius is not what it was before, much shorter before it starts to plow for lack of a better description, cannot turn all the way to steering stops or it just tries to go straight. Never seen anything like this, especially after spending that much on parts.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Randy

 

Sound's like somebody left something loose ? or maybe a crack in the frame above the steering box ?

 

Everything is tight and the frame is in good shape. Problem wasn't there with the worn parts on the truck. Wishing I'd left alone except the old upper control arms had bad rust. The new arms looked right when compared side by side to the old ones.

Randy

 

Sounds like maybe the steering box is not centered on lock to lock.

Do you have some pics of the front end all together...or can you post some up. Maybe we can spot something that is not right.

 

It's centered, it turns equally poorly in both directions. I'll try to get some pics if I wake up in time tomorrow. I never pulled the box, stuff only hooks up one way. I would expect the shop to have addressed centering during the alignment process. Of course I wouldn't expect them to send it out the door screwed up like this either, although they weren't the ones to to the rebuild. Unfortunately I had a gift certificate for the alignment (free) and I suspect as they aren't making a dime they also are putting in the bare minimum effort.

I've done quite a bit of front end work over the years with no silly issues like this.

Randy

 

I've been a lurker here for a long time, usually I can find my answers via the search function without having to occupy unnecessary bandwidth. I try to search and read rather than the too often seen " I just got this truck, what should I do first?" thing so often seen. This one is a bit out of the ordinary.

Randy

 

Yeah that is weird....Not sure why it would be doing this. Have you layed under the truck and had someone turn the steering wheel lock to lock? Then try and spot where your issue might lay?

Only thing I can think of that might be similar was my buddy recently rebuilt the front end in his 63 Impala and had a kind of similar issue. Turned out he put the idler arm on the wrong side of the frame. He switched it around and all was good after that.

 

I hope it turns out to be something that easy, but it's definitely not the idler arm, the new one went right back where the old one was. Somehow the wheels aren't turning in the same plane as best I can tell, causing it to push the tires straight instead of them rolling. I also did new strut rod bushings, wondering if I might have tightened one of them too far making the caster do funny things. seems like they'd have adjusted that if it was wrong during the alignment.

Randy

 

Wonder how much caster was put in/taken out? A little extra caster doesn't hurt, but a lot can make it harder to steer.

Having caster in it changes the camber when the wheel is turned, making the tire want to turn that way. Something like leaning a bike over to turn it.

John Deere front wheel assist tractors in the 80s turned better than anyone else's, because they put a lot of caster in them.

 

Well, the first place I took it to had just done a half assed toe-in and sent it out. Had a better shop spend some time on it and now it seems to be all good.

Randy