This is something I've been working on for awhile. Too long really.

The Problem:
When driving the truck wants to always turn left. I don't mean drift left, I mean turn left. If I let go of the steering wheel it will begin to rotate to the left, and it will keep going. I've never had a parking lot big enough to test if it will stop at any point, but when driving at freeway speeds it moves over into the left lane pretty quickly if I let go. When driving down the freeway I have to rotate the steering wheel almost 60° to the right to keep it straight.

Other information:
The tires and steering wheel are center. When the steering wheel is in a natural position the tires are pointing straight ahead and parallel. I did have the alignment checked last year, and it's in alignment. The outside of both of my front tires are more worn than the inside. It's like they are cambered out.
With the engine off I can rock the steering wheel back and forth 3/4 of an inch before feeling any engagement from the steering box. That's a lot of slop in the box.

Things I've done, and replaced over the last couple of years:
(in reverse order)
New drag link 2016
King pin rebuild, new U-joints in the front axle 2016
New tie rod ends 2016
Rear differential rebuild, rear brake rebuild 2016
New brake rotors, wheel bearings, brake calipers, new leaf springs (Alcans) 2015
Front differential rebuild 2015
Fixed cracked steering box mount 2015
Replaced steering box (Napa reman) 2014

So *** am I doing wrong?
This problem started years ago, and it's only gotten worse. Every time I replace something I think A-ha!, and nothing fixes it. I will say replacing all of the tire rods, and king pins sure has tightened the steering up, but maybe that has made the problem worse.
Is it possible that the rear end is out of alignment causing a problem up front?
Also when braking it pulls to the left. Even more than the turn to the left so under hard braking I have to make a big steering adjustment. That makes it super fun during panic stops in the rain.
The worn tires tell me something but I don't know what they are telling me.
When the truck was in the shop getting the front differential rebuilt I asked them to take a look at the steering and they couldn't tell me either.

I live in San Francisco and finding someone willing to work on my truck is harder than finding a republican. If anyone has a suggestion of someone good that's within an hours drive I'm open.

Thanks in advance
-mickey

 

Had truck at work pulling hard to left. They finally got it to a shop and the centering pin in the right spring pack had sheared. Check if your rear tires are centered in both wheelwells. Ours was noticeably offset.

 

I just took a tape measure and from the front of the inside wheel well to the center of the tire is about 19" on both sides. I was kind of hoping this would be it, but since the springs are new Alcans I was doubtful. Thanks for the input.

 

Could be brake hose disintegrating on the inside & not letting brake fluid return to the master cylinder. Just a thought.

 

If the tires are wearing unevenly, the alignment is off. A good alignment/front end/tire shop could diagnose that thing in a few minutes.

Key word is "good".

 

You're suggesting that a brake is dragging and thereby causing the pull?
It's certainly not my rear as they don't self adjust very well and I have to roll them in manually and I forget to check and last time they were way out, but still the steering is the same. The fronts maybe, but I don't think so. As old as they are it's not a terrible idea to replace all of the lines with steel anyway.

I dig it, but I did have them aligned and was told they were good. I did not think we had camber correction only toe. This is a 4x4. ???

 

1) Swap your front tires left to right and see if that changes anything.

2) Jack both front tires off the ground. Set the steering wheel straight, then start the engine and give it a little bit of throttle. Watch to see if the steering wheel starts turning itself to the left. If so, you have an internal steering box problem.

3) To check for a thrust angle on the rear axle, (rear axle not square to the frame) I generally measure the wheelbase on each side of the vehicle (center of front wheel to center of rear wheel) and compare. I know you measured wheel to fender, but I'm not sure if you can get enough accuracy that way.

Hope this helps, there may be a brake issue here, but this may weed out some other possibilities.

 

There isn't an adjustment provided for camber and caster, but those angles could still be out of spec, and definitely cause your problem.


**Another thought- Have a good look at your left front spring hanger. Have seen several crack, or start popping the rivets out. Not good, as it lets your spring and front axle move around.

 

A frozen front axle joint caused my rig to do the exact same thing. Joint took grease, but the center cross only shot grease into two caps, rusting the other 2 solid, preventing the axle knuckle from rotating properly. The axle joints were less than 2 years old from China....uh, I mean AutoZone.

 

Tire wear can tell you volumes of info. Google tire wear patterns, and educate yourself on what wear characteristics are indicative of.

 

I'm going to double down on this one. If the tires are wearing unevenly, something is not right with the front end. If a rear center bolt is broken, it'll dog walk, and probably swing in steering on accel and braking. It won't wear the front tires badly, though.

My friend loaned me a half ton Ferd and camper. It went into a death wobble on a steep downhill while I had it. He said that's been a problem since new. He spent thousands trying to get it fixed. Ford said there's nothing wrong. It had new super shocks, an add on steering damper, and who knows what else installed to "fix" the wobble.

I took it to my tire shop. They used special tooling to bend the twin I beams slightly to get it in alignment. Fixed the problem. Less than $50 cost. That's the difference between a good alignment shop and most alignment shops.

Moral of the story. Change shops.

 

Did you flush the system when you installed the steering gear? A friend had the same issue on his, and failed to flush the system properly when he installed the reman gear. The problem persisted, so he got another gear and flushed the system and installed a filter on the return side, and the left turning issue went away. His was pretty violent, you had to be on your "A" game to drive it.

Keep us posted on what you find.

 

This is my suspicion too. OK now all I need is a front end shop that will work on 4x4's within an hours' drive of SF that doesn't suck. I'm telling you it's easier to find a cross dressing republican than one of those.

 

It's an interesting question. And the issues I'm having might be separate and contributing to each other.
Did I flush it? I know I drained it but I don't remember if it was flushed or not. I have a inline filter but never installed it. (I bought the wrong one when installing)
I was considering getting a Red Head
https://www.redheadsteeringgears.com...dodge-pickups/
I really should have done that the first time, but I was uninformed at the time.
The Cardone reman felt like a turd even when I took it out of the box. Like I said in the original post there's a ton of slop in the box. When I lifted the whole front end yesterday I could move the steering wheel 3/4 before feeling the box engage. That seems like a lot of slop to me.
Install the Red Head, fully flush the system, and install an inline filter. Even if it doesn't fix the problem at least I'll have a quality box that'll last me another 15+ years. I think it's worth it.

 

I'd try to flush before installing the high dollar box. If nothing else it will help get some crud out of the system. Unhook the hot to the IP and run the return off the gear into a bucket and plug the return on pump, have a friend crank until it comes clean, while you dump in clean juice, it only takes an hour for set up and procedure. I used an inline steel fuel filter, like a Wix 33033.