07 F250 Steering Troubles

[Redpower]

I am having trouble with the steering on my 07 F250. Tire size is stock, and the truck has 131k on the meter. Sometimes when I turn the wheel to make a turn the wheel doesn't want to turn back easily. Today it happened again and after I got the wheel straight I was getting a lot of pressure on the wheel trying to keep it straight. It would alternate from left pressure to right pressure and eventually it steered ok again. The steering isn't loose at all and it doesn't happen all the time.
I've checked the front u joints ( replaced the passenger side one) and jacked the truck up and had the wife run the wheel back and forth while I checked stuff underneath. Everything looks good and tight. Any other ideas?

 

[Swsignal5]

Did you happen to have pressure on the brakes when you were turning


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[6.0 Tech]

Could be a steering gear, ive seen internal seals fail causing issues like this, to where intermittently it would basically lock up until you backed off yhe wheel then got back on it, it would steer fine until you hit the seal just right again.

 

[jngreen]

Yeah, sounds like the steering gear box to me. Also sounds like it's time to do something about replacing it sooner, rather than later.
An inspection of the rest of the system would be on the list of items to accomplish. That whole scenario sounds scary to me. What if it locks one day, and decides to not unlock while coming out of a turn?

I guess there could be some sort of issue with the hydroboost causing that too, but to me it sounds like the hydroboost is functioning correctly, and the hydraulic pressure is fighting something mechanical in the gearbox.

 

[Redpower]

After a couple days with wrestling this problem I decided to replace the drivers side u joint even though it looked good and felt tight. Once I got it out, I think I found the problem- it was pretty much froze up. I got it back together last night and drove it to a meeting (10 mile round trip) and so far everything feels good with the steering. I'll post an update later after I've run it around a little more.