OK, I have an 08 with 58K miles on it. Replaced the track bar, drag link, dual steering stabilizers with PMF gear, replaced all tie rod ends and the track bar ball joint, and everything is torqued to specs. With the truck running, if I turn the steering wheel to the left once any amount and stop it's good, if I turn it left for a second time it makes a loud pop that you can hear in the cab. I turn it left a 3rd time and no noise, if I stop and do a 4th turn it pops. No noise ever happens when I turn to the right. I got under the truck and had the wife turn to the left and I hear/feel the pop coming from the steering box. Is it seriously possible to replace all the parts and then have the steering box go crazy like this? Is there another issue at hand here that might be causing some sort of binding? Before the replacement parts there was no popping and it was a pain to turn the steering wheel at a dead stop, now it's like slicing through butter how easy it is to turn the wheels but I have the popping noise one the 2nd left turn. Also I noticed the track bar and the drag link are not parallel to each other and the only way to possibly make it so is to flip the track bar ball joint and have the track bar connect at the top instead of the bottom like stock. Any ideas???
Steering makes loud popping noise
- Thread starter vr6dub
- Start date
NotStock
New member
Sounds like the track bar upper bolt is not torqued to spec. That needs to be at 400 ft lbs.
Hmm, strange.. I swore I torqued it to 410lbs as that's what I found on the internet. Guess I'll go double check that bad boy again. I know when the steering wheel is turned you cannot feel/hear the pop in the track bar, just the steering box.
Sahrens0202
New member
How long is your torque wrench? Make sure its foot pounds not inch pounds. I have a 30" breaker bar that has a serious bannana to it when I get it tight.
