I may just be imagining... but it seems like my steering wheel just jumped out of alignment. I need to steer noticably left to go straight. It seems like it happened overnight. I had the truck off-road Saturday to drag a downed tree out of the woods. But I didn't hit anything or go fast at all...

What might this be from? 49K on the truck, I'm thinking I might go get the alignment checked...

 

it happened to me also i got an 06 that i had to take in 3 different times.
but now is ok but still feels weird to me.

also the truck only has 5000 miles on it
2500 4x4 diesel quad cab

later
krazykiller

 

Does the truck pull to one side or the other when you let go of the steering wheel? If not, your alignment might be fine. The stock steering has an adjusting sleeve on the drag link that tends to jump threads when you get offroad. It's so lame. Luckily, it's easy to adjust.

On your drag link, which is the bar that goes from the pitman arm to the tie rod itself, you'll see the sleeve. You need a 15mm socket, and just undo the two nuts so they are loose. You don't need to take them out all of the way.

You need to drive the truck and make a note of where your center wheel is when the truck is going straight down the road. Then park the truck with the steering wheel in that position. With the truck running and the tires straight ahead, turn that sleeve one way or the other to figure out which way you need to go, and just turn it until the wheel is straight. Then tighten the sleeve back down, just snug, and go drive again. You'll notice that it's not perfect. Repeat... park with the steering wheel in it's new center position, and the wheels straight ahead, and adjust it with the truck running. You might have to do this a time or two but it's easy and takes like 5 minutes to get it perfect. Then tighten that sleeve down real good. You'll be fine until you hit a big pot hole, or go offroad again, and then it will lose it's center again. I went through this for years before I finally got a steering setup that is worth a poop.

 

The truck does not seem to drift when driving straight, but does have a slight pull right on hard braking... but the roads are crowned a little to the right.
I need to get it into a parking lot and test a little more.

The idea that the steering linkage jumped when I went off road sure seems to fit my situation. Thanks for letting me know that's a possibility.

 

Dave,

I had mine do the same thing to me about 4 weeks ago. I went under the truck and could see where the link had shifted due to the slight rust marks on the rod. My steering wheel was out about 1/16 to 1/8 rotation to the left when I went straight down the road. I did notice that the nuts on the adjuster were not very tight from the factory when I loosened them and made the adjustment. All it needed was a 1/4 turn to be perfect again.

Good luck!

 

just got the call from the dealer.

it's a track bar and they want $500 to replace it and re-align.

I had been under the front and did see a bushing that appeared to be shredding itself... I had expected maybe a few bucks for a hunk of plastic bushing but five bills for a part that self destructed in 50,000 miles? The dealer said "it happens, nothing you could have done".

Sounds wrong to me, but I don't want this to shred $700 of new tires and add insult to injury.

 

Has anyone else seen this?
I griped a little and got the price down a few bucks (but not a lot). I put in a new track bar but had them give me back the old one. One bushing was shot - almost all gone and maybe causing 1/2" of play. I think I caught it early, so I'm thinking that bar could be rebuilt if I could find new bushings.

This did solve the problem - she goes straight when I point her straight now.

 

Dave,

You might look at adding one of these to your truck. http://www.sourceautomotive.biz/steeringsuspension.htm

I hear they help stabilize everything and make the truck track straight. I don't own one yet, but it is on my LIST. Good luck with getting everything working right.