Howdy

I cannot find the culprit of my steering not returning to center.
Heres what ive replaced thus far:

ReadHead steering gear
replaced the draglink with the 2008 upgrade
new Raybestos pro ball joints
Beilstien shocks
Borgeson shaft
Steering box brace

i have verified its not the steering gear by disconnecting the draglink at the pitman arm and driving it a few 100 feet in an open parking lot.....still will not return.

The casters are maxed out but that causes its own set of issues, about 5.5* Has anyone ever had ball joints that are loose when off the ground but get tight when the weight of the truck is on them?

The Alignment shop stated that the camber is out of spec on one side and i do plan on getting an offset balljoint eventually.....

 

Mine mysteriously would not turn left all the way. We disconnected the 2.0 Fox ss and the condition remained.
That ss unit was leaking so I ordered a Carli Bilstein drop-in. In between the original incident and the installation of the Carli part the steering issue vanished.
Maybe my truck just loves Carli's stuff.

 

There's lots of accounts of aftermarket bj's hanging up and not returning to center,especially Moogs.

 

Yes! My first set of Ball Joints we used Moog and had the same problem. Off the ground they seemed fine, but once the weight of the truck was on them they seized up and prevented the wheels from returning to center. There has been a lot of discussion of that on here. We at first thought it was the Camber as well and put in off set upper ball joints with no luck, then we decided to just get new uppers from Chrysler and still no luck... so we finally pulled the lowers and put Chrysler OEM's in the lower as well and the truck drove perfectly again. Knowing the short life span of the Chrysler OEM's at that point I did a lot of reading on here and prepared myself for when they went out and I chose the Dynatrac Pro Steer Ball Joints and they have been perfect! Plus I like the fact that they are rebuildable in place so I never have to worry about having the housings pressed out and back in again so I can service them at home in the future!

Change your ball joints and your problem should be solved!

 

Awesome. Thx. I'll start saving my pennies. ....

 

A local shop I use has installed many sets of Dynatrac's and a few Carli's with complete customer satisfaction. Many of the customer's frequent the desert here and regularly thrash their trucks.

 

I have 3 out of the 5 OP mentioned. Raybestos BJ's, 08 Steering Upgrade, and Bilstiens, truck tracks the best it has ever. I also added the steering brace when I replaced all this too. I'm pleased with my updates and my steering returns to center w/o issues.

 

Another vote for ball joints. I had a set of moog BJs that would hang up under the weight of the truck and caused a poor steering/no return to center condition. Dyntrak lowers and Carli uppers and now no problems.

 

Do you have a steering damper in the mix? If it was the ball joints they should loosen up over time. Another thought, offset wheels can affect the SAI and may cause a problem.