The truck is a 92 w-250, driving down the road the steering has a wobble that gets worse the faster you go. None of the wheels are bent, there are four brand new tires, prob existed before the tires, everything seems real tight in the front end, and I have put a steering stabilizer on from reading another post which did help but now kinda changed the problem from a wobble to a surge. Now, instead of the steering wheel being ripped from your hands, your always correcting your path, but when whatever happens you can feel it instantaneously to know to correct the steering.

With the hubs in the free position, turning the steering from left to right or visa versa, and watching the axles in the shaft there is a noticable bind or release.

Could this be tight U-joints or maybe a bad lock-out?

What do you think?

Rick

 

Have you had the front end aligned recently? Even if the U- joints in the front axle were binding, I don't think they would while having the wheels set straight ahead.

 

Jeremy, This is a problem that happened once in three months, didn't return , and now all of a sudden it seems like you can't get it to stop doing this. As far as alignment it would be a progressing trouble. The longer it goes the worse it gets.

I'm thinking it's one of the lockouts not disengaging?

When the hubs are "free" and the steering wheel is turned, back and forth, the axles, both of them, jump as if they were "bound" up .

I thought the lockouts eliminate the front axles from turning, therefore there should be no exerted force on them (axles) in the "free" position.

Rick

 

If the u-joints bind, even with the hubs disengaged it can affect the steering. It sounds as though you might need new u-joints in the axle, and possibly new spindle bearings (that the stub shaft rides on) and maybe even new upper king pin bushings and springs (the spring-loaded bushings are supposed to act like a steering damper).

It can be a fair bit of work changing those u-joints, but it sure seems like you need to do it.

 

with the front jacked up, if you spin the front tires, is the front drive shaft moving? If not the hubs can't be goofed up.

Does the bucking happen just while turning or when going straight? You should be able to drive straight on a hard surface road in 4wd and not have such a violent problem. At least I've done it in mine b4. Never at anything close to a highway speed tho....

 

Yeah, if in 2wd, you should be able to turn the front driveshaft by hand freely, unless the hubs are engaged. If it doesn't turn, then jack up a side at a time and spin the wheel to see which is bad. Make sure the T-case shift linkage isn't out of whack. If the hubs are unlocked, but T-case is engaged, it may wobble. Take the shift boot off, and have a passenger look through the hole in the floor, to make sure the drive shaft is turning when it's suppose to. Try this with hubs unlocked too. When you put the boot back on, this is a good time to add a little carpet insulation to kill some road noise.