C_conger04

My 2wd 92’ d350 has about a quarter turn of play in the steering and I’m pretty sure it’s either something to do with the steering gear box or the steering gear but I couldn’t find anything on the forums about it, It’s been mainly used for in town and highway driving and towing a 30’ camper when if was newer but it seems to be getting worse, anyone have any idea what it might be?

Shelby/Dakota

Check the rag joint between the steering shaft and the steering box. I had to rebuild the one on mine. The other option is to go with a borgeson shaft with u joints

Berta

If you have the original steering shaft, along with the rag joint going bad I've also had the bushings inside the "block" (steering box side of the steering shaft, the shaft is basically a rod with a T shape at the end that sits between two rubber bushings sandwiched in the block) go bad and cause for some serious steering slop. They can be replaced fairly easily. But as recommended before a borgeson steering shaft is a good upgrade.

Also before you start throwing parts at it jack the front end up off the ground (both steering tire off the ground) and grab the driver side tire and you should be able to find your steering slop fairly easily.

C_conger04

I had it off the ground last time I changed the oil and I’m pretty sure it’s the coupler going into the steering gear, anyone have the link to where I can get just that coupler without buying the whole shaft?

Ol-dodge 1992

Napa has just the rebuild kit for box coupler for my steering shaft... my steering box and coupler were completely shot and I was dealing with a serious death wobble

The coupler is pretty straight forward to rebuild ... I had to look at it and get my head wrapped around the idea as I had nothing to go by in disassembly as the internal parts of my coupler were disintegrated

The new steering box and coupler, tie rod ends fixed 90% of my wobble... kingpins and front axle joints are next as soon as I get time and decent weather

SD

Berta

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/PSA73064


I believe that's the right one.

NJTman

Amazon has the steering coupler kit :
if you don't have a napa nearby.

thrashingcows

You can see all the parts for rebuilding the coupler in my thread, Post #92....I had over 180* slop in my coupler on my donor truck. I

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...-305923/page7/

have used a few of the aforementioned rebuild kits ad they do a good job getting things back into decent shape. I like to drill and put a grease nipple near the base of the coupler so you can keep a constant flow of fresh grease into it.....helps it last a lot longer.

torquefan

Good idea with the grease nipple, so many couplers I took apart were just packed full of mud.

u2slow

My D250 with a 1/4-turn of play in the steering is because the center link is shot. (the joint that connects to the pitman arm)

I have some 7 different 75-93 Dodges... oddly enough, I haven't had steering shaft coupler get that bad.

edwinsmith

I had an old Dodge van and once I was putting some grease in the steering linkage. At the right wheel joint the grease gun got hard to pump so I applied more pressure and the joint popped off and flopped on the ground.

NOT COOL AT ALL!!!

torquefan

If a tie rod end is gonna fall off the vehicle, it's actually really cool when they do it in the driveway!