I've got about 3in. of looseness and play in my steering wheel???? 2000, 250 has 215,000 miles on it so I'm sure this has a lot to do with it. Should I start with steering box and go down the lin to the steering arms or should I check the steering wheel shaft for wear???? If yes.... how in the hell do I do that???? :dunno: HELP, IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!
I'm also hearing a lot of shaking and rattleing when I go over a bump or bumps. I know the 3/4 tons are rough riding and all, but there sure seems to be alot of noise (rattleing) coming from under the front end. I just want to tighten things up, if possible, and try and get back what's been shook loose in the past 200k miles.
to check the steering box have a friend move the steering wheel very slowly until the freeplay is taken up back and forth while you are looking at the pitman arm and if it doesn't move then the steering box is loose, to adjust this you have to remove the air filter driverside battery and tray and intercooler to intake pipe, now on the top of the steering box there is an adjusting screw and lock nut it requires an allen wrench and if i remember right a 5/8 (16mm) wrench, back off the lock nut 1/2-1 turn then slowly turn the adjusting screw in till you feel it bottom, don't force it once it bottoms hold it there and lock the locknut, although it sounds complicated it shouldn't take more than 30-45 minutes i had to do this on my 04 f-350 at 80,000kilometers P.S. make sure your wheels are straight ahead when you do this
Did you put on an aftermarket drop pitman arm. If so you may need to tighten the nut up on the steering box. mine was loose and I had to torque it to 350 ft lbs.
i did the adjustment in my steering box but you should be able to see it on top of the steering box on your truck without removing anything. right off to the side of the battery box and intercooler pipe. it is easy to see with light. allen wrench and wrench is what you will need.
I just replace the steering box in our crewcab, also replaced the steering pump and fluid. Now there is no play and much easier to steer (less effort).
don't worry about the high jack it's cool. It still pretains to the original post, so no worries! As for the spring....... you got me???? But if it can have anything to do with the sloppiness in my steering then le-me-no...
hey cowboy mine is an 04 so i don't now if there is much difference and if not you would have to be a noodle armed choir boy to be able to get at it without removing anything.
my pitman arm and steering box splines are destroyed...along with the gear in the box...so.....thats why my steering is sloppy. Tried tightening the pitman arm...didnt do as much. No point in adjusting if the pitman arm is wallowed out.
I don't really know what its called, but I call it a tie rod. It's the long rod that connects to your spindles, check those balljoints. Mine are bad on mine im getting ready to replace them. At O'reilys they are 125$ a pop
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