Steering wanders left to right.

8brnr · Sep 7, 2015

Ok, so if I make a left or right slow turn and come straight, the steering starts to jerk to the left or right. Gets to the point where I'm holding the steering wheel with a death grip trying to straighten it back up! What really scares me is my wife drives this truck from time to time as well. There is a little play in the driver side of the track bar and also pitman arm to tie rod. But, I wouldnt think that the little play they have would cause the front end to do what it does. Maybe I'm wrong?

webb06 · Sep 7, 2015

8brnr said:
Ok, so if I make a left or right slow turn and come straight, the steering starts to jerk to the left or right. Gets to the point where I'm holding the steering wheel with a death grip trying to straighten it back up! What really scares me is my wife drives this truck from time to time as well. There is a little play in the driver side of the track bar and also pitman arm to tie rod. But, I wouldnt think that the little play they have would cause the front end to do what it does. Maybe I'm wrong?

Check front u joints. Had this happen on a customers truck and that's exactly what he was experiencing. I didn't believe him until I replaced the u joints and it solved his problem. They were binding up I guess and jerking to one side or the other after a slow turn.

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BBottoms · Sep 7, 2015

I had something similar happen and it ended up being the brakes. It would only do it on occasion after a sharp turn. It would pull real hard, usually to the right, then free up on its own in a few hundred feet. I think it was a brake hose pinching or collapsing internally when extended since it would only do it turning. I replaced the hoses and calipers and it hasn't happened since.

TD-5 · Sep 7, 2015

webb06 said:
Check front u joints. Had this happen on a customers truck and that's exactly what he was experiencing.

WHS, I've had this happen on my old 97.
Or possibly you are unknowingly stuck in 4 wheel drive

webb06 · Sep 7, 2015

I should also mention that the electronic shift on the fly wasn't working on this truck so they always had the hubs locked in, causing the front axles to always be spinning which is probably what wore out the u joints.

After replacing the hub vacuum solenoid and u joints the problem never came back and the 4x4 worked properly.

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JMart · Sep 7, 2015

webb06 said:
Check front u joints. Had this happen on a customers truck and that's exactly what he was experiencing. I didn't believe him until I replaced the u joints and it solved his problem. They were binding up I guess and jerking to one side or the other after a slow turn.

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:whs:

Had this happening in my 05. Until we got a bad ice storm and I have to run around in 4wd for a few days. I manually locked my hubs so I didn't have to worry about them engaging and left them that way until after the ice passed. I was in and out of 4wd though. I guess that loosened up the u-joints because it went away after that.

Mine was pretty bad before too. It would pull hard one way, then when I corrected, it would pull a little less hard to the other side and slowly decrease until I could go straight again without the wheel fighting me.