How many miles do you put on your steers?

I'm not going to throw parts at anything just yet. It's been raining here the last several days but supposed to quit tonight sometime. I will check those wheel bearings for play tomorrow. But just to know what I'm facing if they are bad I did get a quote from a shop I use - approx $500 parts and labor to install new races, bearings, and seals. Does that sound about right? Hopefully that isn't my trouble. I really do hesitate to tear into this, beyond simply jacking it up and checking for play. I know it's pretty simple but I don't have one of those huge torque wrenches like they use to torque lug nuts just laying around and don't know anyone that does. Isn't that what I would need to properly torque the retaining nut?

It's getting downright scary you mentioning the pitman arm though lol. The bolt that tightens the pitman arm on the steering shaft loosening itself has been an ongoing problem for about 8 months or longer. It developed some slop in the steering and I discovered that after pulling over one day. If it is loose there will also be the tell tale trails of rust down the pitman arm where the shaft comes out of it. I noticed that later. Checking that for play is part of my daily pre-trip now - grabbing the steering shaft and working it back and forth to make sure there is no play at all on the pitman arm/steering shaft splines.

Tried tightening it down with my wrenches and figured that was the end of it, as the nut is self locking, but that only lasted a few days. Next was a lock washer. that didn't do the trick either. I was tightening that #### thing every 3 or 4 days for the longest time there.. Lastly I put a jam nut on it about 4 weeks ago and that appears to have fixed it so far. I also managed to pick up a spare pitman arm for about $50 which came with the bolt and nut I used to jam it with.

I was afraid the splines in the original pitman might have been worn to a point that it would never be able to get properly tightened down, so I picked that salvage one up, just in case. New ones were outrageously high at Kenworth. So I do have that if this problem pops up again and we will see. I figured the splines in the pitman would wear away before the ones on the steering shaft would, is that wrong thinking? Steering boxes are expensive...

One thing I have wondered about. I do not have any air tools. I am torqing this pitman arm bolt with regular wrenches and cheaters. I thought it might need an impact on it but am afraid of over tightening it and cracking the pitman arm. Do you know how much torque it needs? I am worried about too much from cheaters really...

It's crazy i have known about this problem and have thought it could be the culprit behind my steer issues but it never occured to me, oddly enough, while reading and posting here.. Also, I have been told by a few folks the same thing about higher torque trucks causing those wear problems I have on my drives. That there is nothing to be done about that other than avoiding jack rabbit starts, but even avoiding red light racing won't always make it go away. Just have to live with it.. ..which sucks but what can you do..

Anyways, I'll check my front wheel bearings tomorrow and I really appreciate your valuable insight on these issues, thank you..

 

was just quoted a price for 2 steer tires mounted & balanced. nothing else just under $800.00 some off brand tires. looked at receipt from 2 years ago when I got b.f. st 244 put on from t.c.i. & they cost $318.00 per tire. with 3 axle alingn, total was $967.00 for everything. tire prices are out of control.

 

Something like 80% of those tires are made out of a distillate of crude oil. What's happened to oil prices in the last 2 years?

 

I have 120K on my steers and they have plenty of tread left and wear perfect. I would say they are in the 30-40% range left on them and have no cupping or uneven wear.

 

I'd be checking those bushings again... mine were worn at 900,000 when I bought my truck. I got it to 1,690,00 or so before I had them replaced but the tire wear had started way before that...

 

While were somewhat on the subject.. I had kingpins put in 3 years ago. I don't want to go looking for the receipt, & there was something I cannot remember. if the shop put new wheel bearings in ? if installing new kingpins, would bearings have been replaced ? or only if needed?.

 

You talking about the 6 bushings on the front leaf springs? One of those was completely shot about a year ago so all 6 got replaced.

Checked my wheel bearings on the front today. They are fine there's nothing wrong with them at all. There is absolutely no slop or play when trying to pry and work them. They spin freely.

One thing I noted, the right front steer cups and dips on the outside shoulder. The left front cups, thought not as badly, on the inside. Guess I need to get all 3 alignment's checked.. ..don't know what else to try or even if this is just a waste of money. Have wondered about my front wheels possibly having some slight warpage but that's just a wild guess.

 

Best alignment I ever got was one of those "as-driven" alignments... too many variables for the guys with the computers to figure out.

If you can find a run-out gage, have them jack-up the steers, and then you can spin the tire to measure if there is any warpage, etc.

 

You can jack it up and sit something next to the rim and spin it and c if it's true.

 

Ok, I jacked up my steer tires this weekend and checked the runout. I didn't have a dial indicator to get a precise number but judging from the looks of it both steer wheels have about .005 to .008 of warpage. I just set a block of wood next to the rim and put a screwdriver within a hair of touching it. Could visually see some warp as I spun the wheel by hand.


Is it possible that something other than the wheel being warped is causing this or are the wheels just old and do they warp over time? Kingpins and wheel bearings are fine. I'm thinking about buying a couple of forgitron wheels when i get my next set of steers and also upping the load rating on those steers. Along with an alignment. What a pain..


Sometimes I think I'd be better off selling this truck and upgrading. Maybe I'll just up the load rating on my next set of steers, get the alignment, and drive it.... What do you guys think? Waste of money getting two new aluminum wheels?