Just had my truck in for new axle U's under warranty and I had the dealer install Moog greaseable ball joints as well. I bought the truck with 20K or so on it and the steering has always felt "funny". There's 45K on it now and I thought the ball joints were the culprit. Now I have the truck back with the Moogs and the thing drives worse than ever.

I had the shop re-align it and it got a little better but still sucks. Shop says tires are wore funny and it's causing it to "dart". They looked OK to me but I put new rubber on all four corners anyway. Still drives like garbage. Took it to another shop that specializes in truck alignment. They could not find any components that were out of speck but they told me "wandering" steering was common on these Dodges and suggested this:

http://www.puredieselpower.com/catal...4x4-p-300.html

(I don't know if the link will work. You might have to punch it in.)

The price seems fair. $235 to save a lot of grief. Install looks like a breeze. Any experience with these?? Good or bad? Worth the money?

Does anyone else have any "wandering" Dodges out there??

 

Mine is starting to get there. Got 70,540 on her and I'm going to replace the steering shaft w/ a Borgeson, see what that does.

 

My steering shaft had no play in it at all. First thing I checked...

 

Do you have a print out of the alignment settings achieved? If there is play in steering gear box, then that is adjustable to certain extendt. I am not familiar with product suggested, but looks like it provides a additional bearing for the pitman shaft. Good box should not need. Again, do you have record of alignment???

 

I don't have the print out right now. It is in the truck and I am not. I will post it when I can. I reviewed it and saw no specific tolerance listed for steering box. Is there something I should look for specifically in the printout.

Your opinion is that the brace isn't needed if the box is good.

Any other opinions on this?

 

For the 3rd Gen front ends, we spec a sector shaft stabilizer, urethane sway bar bushings with our endlinks, zero-deflection track bar bushings with no-clunk hardware package and ~ +4.5* of caster in the cams... I prefer an absolute minimum of toe-in (1/10*), both to reduce tire wear and keep the steering effort light with max caster. Good upper & lower BJ if you can afford the $$$.

BTW - a sector shaft stabilizer won't just help a worn-out steering gearbox to work better, it'll also keep a new one lasting much longer, since it absorbs the lateral loading of the sector shaft's lower bearing in the gearbox... also helps prevent the lower shaft seal from leaking.

p.s. If you run aggressive MT tread with seperate lugs, you can expect that the truck will want to pull for the curb until they wear down; road crown + MT... you can shorten the drag link 1 turn to keep the steering wheel centered while tracking straight.

 

XLR8R
I don't run aggressive tires (I don't think anyway). The tires that were on it when this started were the factory BFG's. I put new BFG All Terrains on it and it didn't affect anything, better or worse.

I put in MOOG ball joints. I don't remember the part numbers but they were the only Moogs that were greaseable. They are good right? They should be, sure were expensive.

Sector shaft stabilizer ?? Are you referring to the link that was in my post or is there another contraption that i should be looking at? Thanks

 

Yes, yes and we make our "contraptions" with a 4-bolt bearing and integral sway bar drop mounts.


I think the first thing to do is make sure you have a good alignment - setting the specs in the "green zone" on an alignment machine doesn't always give you what you need!
Find someone whose work you trust and tell them what specs you'd like... it isn't too hard to do it in your driveway, either, if you trust your own wrenchability.

 

I trust my own wrenchability but I have no clue how to measure caster and toe in my driveway. I suppose the shop I go to will set the alignment to whatever I want if I am paying for it.

So is your sector shaft stabilizer a better buy than the one I sent n my post? Send me a link. How do I see what you sell ? Also, you seem to be pretty knowledgeable on the subject, if I buy a sector stabilizer will it likely help with the wander?? I had a 1970 GMC in high school that tracked better than this truck and I paid more for the Moogs than I paid for that whole GMC.

 

If your steering box is still in good shape and have wandering. A steering brace will clean it up along w/ bump steer. Cheap $$$ suspension component you can buy for your truck that helps a lot in the steering.

Look into PSC for thiers at $169.
http://www.pscmotorsports.com/sb300-...zer-p-444.html

 

Thanks for the link. I like the price.

 

I just put that one on a couple of months ago. Works great. I didn't have any problem with my steering just wanted to keep it working good for the long run. I know people will say it's not as good as theirs but i'm not running the Baja 1000. And the price was easier to swallow.

 

Click on his user name and go to his web page.

 

You guys are pretty clever!

I didn't even know you could do that!

 

Thanks Guys. Nice Website. I was impatient and ordered a stabilizer from somewhere else. I'll keep you posted and let you know if it solves my problem. In it's current driving condition the truck is dangerous. I am very curious to see if this solves my problem.