For the Alberta guys who replaced steering parts with Moog,where did you get your parts??? In Canada or US..

 

Never mind guys...Patdaly helped me with this one...Going to order it from Rock Auto...Going to save me about $500 going through them compared to buying in Canada..Going to covert my truck to a 1998 T-stye steering..

 

Good plan..

 

All ordered..Redhead box is in..Just waiting for the 98 conversion steering..Curious to see how it all works in my truck...

 

Sounds like a nice package of parts to update the steering on your truck, Dave.


There must be a way to put in superior rack & pinion steering in these trucks.
All 1/2 ton's these days have rack & pinion plus 2003+ 2wd 2500/3500 Dodge's (including mine).

There is a huge aftermarket to install rack & pinion into older cars. There must be a way & a need for rack & pinion in 4x4 HD pickups.

 

I'm thinking they aren't reliable enough with the pounding from the 4wd trucks,for a reasonable cost anyways.It would be nice thoguh. There is an upgrade to the 3rd gen 4wd from dodge though.The original parts are no longer available, you have to change the entire steeering link and pitman arm as well as the outer tie rod ends.It appears to be the 4500/5500 stuff as it is a lot beefier, Tim Holt on DR did a great write up on it.

 

Just did the upgrade to my 07,way beefier and the steering is a lot tighter,more percise.It run about 750.00 buck from Dodge and that includes the damper----worthwhile investment IMHO.DW

 

Yup when the time comes i'll be doing the same with my '03.

 

Kinda hi-jacking DieselDave's thread & commenting on DaveW's steering upgrade...


Here's a good comparison picture of the 3rd Gen 4x4 steering upgrade from the Source Auto website:





Interesting, the new configuration eliminates 1 joint between the wheels. Plus much heavier looking parts & joints.

 

Hi-jacking doesn't bother me one bit...

Is this the upgrade you did to your 07 Dave??

 

Thanks for the photos Joe. You can see how the slop in 3 joints, pitman, cross and pass tie rod can cause the death wobble. They all have to be tight or its a wild ride. I should have just replaced the entire thing on my 97 and upgraded. I have been slowly changing out parts along the way.

 

Ok...To get my brain straight...The upgrade is a t-style and the stock is y-style in the 3rd gen??

 

YES SIR-----mine also came with the larger OEM steering damper plus i opted for the larger pitman arm----side by side the new one is a lot sturdier( i heard of a few guy's snapping the old model stock one).I figured that i would get everything done now and not worry about front end parts or a long time.Next years budget will be Carli springs/trackbar/contol arms/5100 Bilsteins(to compliment my rears i put on a month ago)and top off the a$$end with a set of Glacier Diesel ladder bars.Suspension should be done by then----move onto something else---tranny or front/rear Buckstops with a Warn16.5TI winch and 4 Lightforce"BLITZ"lighting.DW---PS that slight vibration under load going up hills that i had been feeling in my steering wheel is total gone now so the u joint that let go was telling me something.Truck tracks straight/very smooth even with those BFG KM2 mudders+the Centramatic wheel balancer's.

 

You're also dealing with an a-arm suspension vs. a solid axle. If your rack is mounted to the frame, every bump you hit is gonna toe out your tires. If you have it mounted to the axle, then your steering linkage to the cab has to have slip joints in it, and I would imagine much more prone to complete failure.

 

Really good example from the DTR 3rd gen section, of what death wobble looks like from the outside..