If youve got play in the steering box you can adjust it to a point just dont get it to tight, cause youll have to fight it all the time because it wont find center.
Frank

 

You can try tightening up your steering box. There's an allen screw held in place by a bolt. I believe 1/2 turn at a time to the right should tighten it up. But don't tighten it too much. I say 1-1.5 turns max.

Could be that you're noticing the play in your steering box now that everything else is tight. You should check your steering box shaft for play. Have someone wiggle the steering wheel while you look at it. It doesn't take much play for it to be out of spec.

 

Let me second the tightening of the steering box. I have replaced most everything under the front end and the thing that made the biggest difference was tightening the steering box. It was like driving a different truck.

- Craig

 

Got back from the shop today. They adjusted the toe slightly out since I'll be towing a 31' Airstream 10 miles to get it home later this week. The website I got the info from didn't specify a range for the toe measurement so we had to wing it. That helped a little bit, but it really just seemed to move where the wandering started rather than diminish or remove it.

So next they put it back up on the rack and adjusted the steering box adjuster about 1/8 turn tighter. When I took it back out on the road the wander was about 80% gone. Much better but now I could feel a slight pull to the left that I didn't notice before. They said that by where the settings were at, if they adjusted them any further it would make it pull harder to the left.

After scratching out collective heads for a little while I noticed something. My front axle is not centered under the truck from left to right. My truck has a homemade 3" lift on the front end installed by one of the previous owners. When they lifted it, they never changed out the track bar. As a result the axle sits farther over towards the drivers side by about 1.5"-2". I'm guessing this offset was compensated by the old alignment settings (that didn't get recorded ) and we can't quite get it dialed back in as the truck now sits with all the new parts on it.

Sooo... Next payday I'll be ordering a track bar mount and an adjustable track bar for it. The shop is willing to install it for me and realign it when it gets here. For now I'm just going to be using the truck as little as possible and keeping it close to home. Long trips would be a pain right now because I'm still having to work the steering to get keep it going straight. Not as much as before, but enough to wear you out after a short while.

At least now it rides a LOT smoother than before all this work was done.

 

I'm ordering the DTProFab adjustable track bar kit and their steering box stabilizer kit as well today. At first, the DT bar looks to be about $100 more than the rest of the adjustable track bars. That is until I realised that their kit includes the upper adapter bracket in the price. On all the other adjustable trac bars I looked at, you had to spend about $200 more to get the mounting bracket. In the long run it looks like the DT kit is about $100 cheaper than most. I don't plan on adding a front Mag Tec diff cover so the straight track bar isn't an issue. The straight trac bar should also have less flex than the curved bars as well.

I'll give a driving impressions update when I receive it and get it installed. I'll try to see if I can get the shop to put them on one at a time so I can see how much of a difference each one makes.

 

Where is this Steering Box Adjustment Key located? I may try something out tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks!

 

Death wobble/ 70's full time problems. I have it right now at 25-50 mph after and before a track bar/ luk's link change .Everything else in front end seems to be fine. but I'm used to leaf spring trucks. My powersteering pump is on the way out though. Cold weather must not be a fan of this design fild is pooring out of pump when pullled into heated shop overnight and P.S. is slim on a cold start truck only has 100,000 on it/1998

 

Get the alignment done and make sure your tires are balanced.

 

Dinner - This is a copy of the TSB I gave to the shop to tighten the steering box on my truck. http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1997/19-10-97.htm It worked for me.

Duster75 - If your PS pump is leaking fluid then it's time to replace or rebuild it. I'm not sure if you can gt a rebuild kit though as I've never looked for one. Do you have the Hydro Boost power brake booster on your truck? If so you could be loosing braking pressure as well with a failing PS pump. The Hydro Boost system uses the PS pump to assist your brakes when you stop. With a 7K+ lb truck, I want all the stopping power I can get.

My truck had a new PS gear box installed right before I bought it at 186K miles. I'm at 217K now and still no signs of leaks. I'm putting the steering shaft stabilizer on my truck to extend the life of the steering gear box and (hopefully) reduce or eliminate the steering wander problem.

 

If you're talking about the allen screw, it's right underneath the box. You can see it from underneath the truck. There's a nut holding it in place.

 

Thanks Gentlemen!

 

Regarding an adjustable track bar, Thuren is outstanding. Regarding adjusting the steering box, the directions in the link above are the same as in the 01 FSM. You want to adjust both preload & over steering. Don't just crank on 1. I spent $$ on an AGR box. It's been down multiple times because the lock washer that holds the pitman shaft came out dumping fluid. You looose power steering and brakes when the seal dumps. Fortunately I was going slow when it happened. AGR never did get me a 3-1/2 turn box & shipping time waiting on a new box had the truck down a long time. I'll take my chances with stock next time. At least Autozone is everywhere & it's at most 1 day to get a replacement. If everything is tight, steering will come down to alignment specs. Caster has turned out to be one of the most important on mine. I've also added the rocksolid steering column bushing. It took some more of the slop out but is also a little tight so the steering doesn't completely return. It is loosening with use & I expect there will be a time where it works perfectly. The DSS brace also is a solid piece. I lose sympathy for American car manufactures when I count the $$ it takes to bring these front ends up to the way they should have been built in the 1st place.

 

Duster75 - If your PS pump is leaking fluid then it's time to replace or rebuild it. I'm not sure if you can gt a rebuild kit though as I've never looked for one. Do you have the Hydro Boost power brake booster on your truck? If so you could be loosing braking pressure as well with a failing PS pump. The Hydro Boost system uses the PS pump to assist your brakes when you stop. With a 7K+ lb truck, I want all the stopping power I can get.

MY truck does have hydro boost And I do lose my power brakes when it acts up So I guess it will be a new booster and pump in the near future for me.... I need to get air out of system and refill and try to find some senthic P.S fuild I think it might help situation as we have not seen 20 dgreees in a month and it really acts up when its cold only. Thanks, Nate

 

I just had to replace my HydroBoost unit recently. Mine leaked from the very bottom - hard to see where it was coming from. I thought about getting a rebuild kit for it but I hadn't heard about anyone that had used one with any sucess. I'd just go new if you can...

IMHO, You really should try to find the source of the leak first. There's four possible places for PS fluid to come from.

1) PS Pump (about $100 w/$40 core)
2) PS Steering Gear Box ($220 w/ $225 core for regular or $375 for the AGR performance gear box)
3) HydroBoost unit ($235 w/ $60 core)
4) PS Lines (about $40)

If you engine bay is a mess with PS fluid like mine was, you'll want to get some engine degreaser and hose it all down as per the instructions ont the can. When you rinse it all off and after it dries, it'll be a lot easier to find where your leak is coming from. Have a friend get in the truck, start it up, and then turn the wheel lock to lock and pump the brakes at the the same time. To make sure they're coordinated enough to perform the task, you may first ask to see if they can rub their belly and pat their head at the same time LOL! You're job is a little easier. Just look for leaks around all the places listed above. Use a lot of light and maybe even an inspection mirror to check the underside of the parts. Hopefully you'll find that you won't have to replace both the pump AND the booster.

New fluid is always a good idea. Synthetic even more so in the cold weather areas. I was in a hurry to get my truck back up and running when I replaced my HydroBoost so I just topped it off with the standard PS fluid and followed the bleeding instructions that came with the unit. So far so good, but then the coldest we ever see down here in South Texas is mid 30's during the winter. I'm planning to swap out all the truck's fluids to synthetics before I move up to the Rockies later this year though.

 

The DT Pro Fab parts arrived yesterday and today I had them installed. My regular shop I go to was booked up, and I needed my truck ready for an all day trip tomorrow, so I drove 45 minutes away to a 4x4 specialty shop and had them install everything. Time was an issue for me so I didn't ask them to let me drive it between installing the kits. They did let me watch the install so I could take pics though.

The steering shaft stabilizer kit was a simple bolt in deal and went in with no issues. If anyone here wants a play by play of how this stuff installs, just visit DT's website. They have all the installation files there in PDF format.

The adjustable track bar wasn't too bad either. The hardest part could have been greatly simplified if the shop just had a 3/4" hole saw. I asked if they had one when I first got there, and they said they did, so I figured they were well enough prepared. All the rest was just basic tools - wrenches, sockets and a grinder. When the time came to drill the holes for the bracket in the front cross member, they couldn't find the hole saw. Instead they had to revert to regular drill bits and step them up gradually. Once the holes were done and the clearance for the track bar was ground into the bottom of the right spring perch gusset it was all just tightening bolts and centering the axle as per the excellent directions.

I tried to get it aligned after they were done installing everything, but everybody was booked up and the truck was already driving MUCH better! It feels close enough that I feel comfortable making my trip with it and just getting it aligned Friday. I now have ZERO vibration in the steering wheel. The section of road that always used to induce DW at highway speeds was just another bump in the road now.