Hi guys. I thought I would share my experience with a V1500 I bought last fall with 210K miles on it, and what ultimately fixed the problem for those of you who have that horrid wander that just won't go away. I will try to keep this short, but want to tell you all that I did so you understand this is not just a random guess when I got lucky or something. Perhaps you can try it, and/or share some thoughts or theories as to why this fixed my wander. Here is what I replaced and what the effect was...
Outer driver tie-rod because it was worn - this brought the truck from unsafe to drive to just simply annoying to drive
Inner driver tie-rod and the sleeve - no improvement
Passenger side tie-rod, drag link, and sleeve - no improvement
Front end alignment - no improvement
Steering Stabilizer - no improvement
Sway bar bushings - maybe a little better, but no "significant" improvement
Adjusted steering box - no improvement
New tires and rims (I was going to do this anyway, but hoped it would help the wander) - no improvement
Steering Box - no improvement
At this point I am annoyed because I have spent somewhere around $400 dollars and countless hours changing parts and cleaning up grease on myself. After careful reconsideration I began to ask what would make a steering system that is tight act "spongy" on the road. The steering box and steering stabilizer where my only to theories. Since I was not about to swap a steering box again I tried an experiment and simply took OFF the steering stabilizer. ** BINGO !!! ** It was like a brand new truck! I had to relearn how to steer the truck because the improvement was so drastic. I would call it just shy of perfect!
So now the question - why? The steering stabilizer is supposed to reduce that sort of problem, not cause it.
Any thoughts???
-Michael in Bedford, VA