steering column in a KW

rollin coal From truckinginfo.com Heavy Duty Trucking mag) I found two articles on alignment. I don't believe that I have found the one I mentioned but these are still worth reading. Go to www.truckinginfo.com. In the search box at the top right corner put in (front end alignment). Go to (Tire report: the art and science of alignment)). The second article is: (Alignment matters ....). Even if your steering box is the culprit, these articles are good info.

 

Have any of these shops drivin the truck and verified this problem.....?



Maybe time to punt and buy the aero truck......(a joke)

 

Whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not, I believe your problem is in the kingpin area. Maybe a strange comparison, and many people will probably laugh at me for this. Have 2002 f350 sd 4x4. Put new ball joints in it. It went from nearly driving itself on the highway to suddenly being "pointy" as a result. New ball joints were binding on left side and steering would not properly center etc. If your steering gear checked out, then I really think you have a king pin issue. jack it up and remove tie rod and see if one side is tighter than the other. If so, then it has a problem with the linear alignment of bushings or something of that nature. If not, then it must be(and likely is) in the thrust surface between spindle and axle. I come from an industrial machine shop background like the type of place they would have taken your axle to. Thing is, if it is in the thrust as I suspect, it is much harder to to spot , because it wont bind when raised up on jack. Therefore, you migh try putting a puddle of oil or dishwashing soap or something under each tire with it on the ground and linkage unhookeduse a prybar , CAREFULLY, stuck through the holes in wheel and see if one side doesn't take substantially more effort than the other to move.


As far as the steering column, the new ones are probably different than my 93 w900l tilt and tele column. I rebuilt it several years ago. No big deal. Took out as a unit. Set it on clean work bench and went to it. Was no big deal to change joint, etc. took about 3 hrs IIRC. Need to do it again pretty soon.


Yes, caster is a little iffy where it is, but just as iffy to me is your toe in @ 1/32. That equates to about zero or worse going down the road and will always tend to wander in my opinion. Because of fuel mileage and tire wear being optimal with head on alignment it has became the practice of the industry to set it it as close to 0 as possible and not considering how it affects driveability. IN MY OPINION, once you solve the binding issue it is still not gonna just set there in the lane with two fingers on the wheel. Mine is more like 3/32. If you don't find any binding in kingpin area, mark your tie rod some way to give it a baseline of where you are at now, then start by cranking it in a couple of threads and drive it. That should give it too much toe, and it steering wheel should stay pretty steady, straight down the road. Then go back and toe it out about half what you toed it in and try it. If it is still steady back it off some more if you want, until it starts wandering again and then toe it back in just enough to stop it. __ Or jack tires up, spin , put fine point chalk against center of tire tread while spinning on both sides. This gives you a line all the way around each tire so you can measure toe in.

 

Put new springs in as planned. Might as well not "recaster" twice.

 

Like I said before, if your old pins were so worn front to back, your caster might have been further from zero than they are now.

 

I don't know if anyone has thrown this out there, could the steering pump have a bad valve acting up causing it to (catch) or air in the system that wasn't purged when the steering box was installed?

 

Even well respected seasoned shops occasionly have a glitch somewhere. Since it happened "immediately after the kingpins were done", and since you "have checked gearbox", and since everyone seems to agree "something is binding" all signs point to that area. If you want to simply go on their reputation and choose not to check these areas out, for both the binding and alignment, then yeah, go ahead and throw in the towel and accept what you have. Doesn't sound very safe to me...... but what do I know.