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The 2001 I recently bought has a ton of slop in the steering wheel and the wheel is turned to about 10 o'clock while driving straight. I've been reading for hours about upgrades and it has me a little confused honestly. Has anyone upgraded the steering on an 01 using the '03-'09 upgrade kit? I saw a post on another forum where a guy bolted on on a 2001 with no modifications. Can you guys please share whatever info you can to point me in the right direction. My budget is not unlimited but I am willing to shell out $$ for quality stuff. Thanks in advance. Pic of truck below
You will need: Trac bar upgrade, quality ball joints, new tie rod ends, new sway bar ends, a quality alignment from someone who knows what they are doing, not in spec off an alignment rack tech who just started...
Possibly new tires and shocks and a steering box.
Sounds like a lot, but at your trucks age most of this stuff could be shot and badly in need of replacement. Once that trac bar starts to play everything else follows. You are looking at about $1800 to do everything right with quality parts....these trucks just don't steer well and the 3rd gen set up was supposed to be good but I never got around to it.
My first step would be asking around and locating that old alignment guy and get it to him for a good going thru.....
And keep sifting thru the threads, there was a lot of good feedback from some of the earlier members.
You will need: Trac bar upgrade, quality ball joints, new tie rod ends, new sway bar ends, a quality alignment from someone who knows what they are doing, not in spec off an alignment rack tech who just started...
Possibly new tires and shocks and a steering box.
Sounds like a lot, but at your trucks age most of this stuff could be shot and badly in need of replacement. Once that trac bar starts to play everything else follows. You are looking at about $1800 to do everything right with quality parts....these trucks just don't steer well and the 3rd gen set up was supposed to be good but I never got around to it.
My first step would be asking around and locating that old alignment guy and get it to him for a good going thru.....
And keep sifting thru the threads, there was a lot of good feedback from some of the earlier members.
Great info thanks! I got under it and had the wife turn the wheel back and forth today. The tie-rod ends and the other joints all have some play. Not terrible but I’m sure it’s enough with all of them together. Need to start saving for a total rebuild looks like.
So far I've done the steering stabilizer, 09+ Mopar steering linkage, Luke's link on the trac bar, and new ball joints. It's 1000% better but I still want to change the gearbox to finish the job. The single biggest improvement was the trac bar fix.
