Steering Shake

[mrgrimm]

how old are your tires? You would be suprised how many cars/trucks come in the shop asking for alignments and tire balances when really they just have seperated belts in the tires. With the truck off the ground spin each wheel as fast as you can an hold your hand over the tread. Its should be pretty smooth, any irregularites in the tread could be the beginings of belt seperation...your symptoms are dead on what happens when tires do this.

Go ahead an replace the front end parts if you know they are bad though...count on paying $60+ for an alignment after all that.

[boshtank]

Check tech service bulletins.....Camber is more than likely out of spec and tire pressure is also critical ....

[n20]

All 4 tires are about 6 months old and have about 9K miles on them. tires look like they are in good shape. Tire pressure is good as well

[n20]

Is there any tips or tricks when replacing the steer gear?

I just did b-joints, hubs and front axle u-joints on my dads 01 7.3L and can't imagine it being any more challenging than that, which actually wasn't too bad. Just took awhile

[maddenjr]

just replace the little white washer on the high pressure power steering hose!!!you will need to get it from ford and it will look to small.. you need to soak the washer in hot water and its a royal pain in the a$$ to get it over the end of the hose!!!also dont let the steering wheel turn while the box is disconnected otherwise you'll be buying a clock spring!!

[n20]

Well i finally got aroung to replacing the Steering Gear and the tie rods and it solved all my problems. Truck drives like brand new. Thanks for all the help

[Tony V]

Did you have any vibration at your feet by any chance?

[n20]

I still have a slight clunk/vibration at my feet when i hit a washboard road or good bumps, but i'm almost positive that is the sway bar bushings ( truck has 200K miles ), but it was way worse before i did the repair of the steer gear and tie rods.

[Tony V]

Well see im have a vibration that I cant figure out... Its driving me crazy.

[redboost10]

i got that same problem, right under my feet, replaced the ball joints and the steering box because that was needed anyways, all the front steering components are tight as can be. wheel bearings are also perfect

there was a thread around here where the guy replaced all the sway bar bolts with larger ones and it cured the rattle/clunking. he mentioned that the bushings were new and still clunking right under the drivers side floor board