A Little Loose

[basketranger]

1. another possibility is have the alignment checked. 2. sway bar bushings, excessively worn. 3. the steering shaft boot, with the truck planted firmly to the ground find a helper, one of you watch and listen to the "knuckle" if it pops fix it (if equipped with zerk fitting grease first). if no pop then just replace the boot. hope this helps. as far as listening to the knuckle with the steering wheel in a short stroke left/right motion a stethescope or screw driver could be used as an amplifier. also engine off.

 

[Earl43P]

I had to replace my rack.

Steering in center had a lot of play, but only after the system got warmed up. I could drive it almost all the way to work (4 miles) before it would get sloppy on center.

All you need to do to confirm this is: watch the steering shaft in the engine bay while an assistant turns the wheel from center in each direction. They don't have to move it much and you can easily see that the shaft is turning going into the rack, but there is little or no resulting movement of the tires/tie rods. My output was also jerky as it started to move.

I ordered a rack from TheSteeringRack.com ONLY because every rack I found at AP stores (3 had one in stock), NONE of those three had mount bolt bushings installed, and came with cheezy plastic cap looking "replacement bushings". Those were NOTHING even close to what the OEM had installed, solid rubber, steel center bushinged, pressed in, big ole Bob Marley bushings that I couldn't remove to save my life (I tried pretty hard, but didn't use a press).

I had several conversations with the techs at Steering Rack, then finally got patched in with a 3 way call to their rebuilder in GA or SC. The rebuilder assured me it would have OEM type bushings in it, and it did. I wouldn't use them again, however, even though their pricing was good. They charged me $125 core charge, which I understood. I shipped it to them with their provided shipping label in the same box. Then a month goes by and I get a form letter in the mail, saying my core wasn't rebuildable (rusted shaft or some crap) so I ate the core charge too. AP stores don't pull that crap, you turn in a core and they give you the $ back.

So, I would NOT recommend TheSteeringRack.com because a bad core is simply a "cost of doing business" in my opinion.

The "new" rack has started leaking from the passenger side boot too, in about a year of service. Piss-poor.