1983 Ford F-250 steering problem

I my 1983 F-250 with 150,000 miles on ti seems to want to wonder from left to right. I can not find anything that looks loose to me under the front end. I just but new tires on the front and had a front end alignment and nothing was said of anything else wrong. The new tires are just a little smaller than the back tires. Is my problem in the power steering gear box or is this a case of not enough caster with no way to adjust other than finding someone that can bend the axle.

Comments ?

Ron Phx AZ

Reply to
Ronald Oberloh
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It's hard to say without seeing it. It could be as simple as incorrect toe setting. I'm not sure how the steering gears are rigged on the p/s models, but offhand I would suspect the front end, or steering linkage, arm, bushings, etc before I would the steering gear itself. If it didn't do this before the tire change, etc, it's not the steering gear. That's fairly easy to check. When sitting still, if turning the steering wheel to any great degree doesn't also turn the steering arm/linkage, I would think you have some slop. I'm not sure, but there may be caster adjustments, or the provision to add adjustable parts on an 83. Are all the parts solid forged, or stamped? I'd check all frontend parts and bushings, but if they prove to be ok, it sounds like the guy needs to redo his alignment. Just having the toe off can cause the problems you mention. I know this because I totally rebuilt the front end on my 68 F-250 about a month ago. At first, it drove like crap, but after being aligned, it was fine. And all they had to set was the toe. The axles were fine. It seems by me rebuilding it all including the kingpins, it brought it back into normal specs. The caster and camber on an older ford truck won't usually go out too far unless you really hit something hard, or the parts wear out. I think my old forged axles are fairly bulletproof unless I hit a 2 ft tall brick wall. :/ It's usually from parts wear, and replacing them will usually bring it back in. BTW, I took it to a frame shop for the alignment expecting to need bending. But it didn't need it. One thing...Many of the smaller shops and wally worlds don't do ford truck alignments worth a hoot. Make sure the guy knows ford trucks and twin I beam. Thats why I went to a qualified frame shop. Didn't cost me any more...Actually, it was less, being he charged by what he actually had to do instead of a flat rate. MK

Reply to
Mark Keith

Yes toe in is the only thing that can be adjusted without bending parts but I have tried numerous setting and yes it does make a difference but not enough to clear up my problem. The person I bought the truck from had replaced a lot of the front end parts. I have a rebuilt gearbox being shipped so will replace it first before taking it to a frame shop. The manual does state that the gearbox might be a solution for my problem.

The trunk was doing it with the original tires also but guess I wasn't paying as much attention then as now.

Ron Phx

Reply to
Ronald Oberloh

if its wandering from left to right then its the front end out of alignment.. get the guy who did the alignment to recheck it or go someplace else and get it done right.....

Reply to
jim

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