just wondering

[1987 DANGER RANGER]

On my 87 4x4 with 31x11.50 I can hardly keep it on the road. When going down a blk top or dirt road it wonders so bad it sucks to drive. Some times pulls to the left then to the right. It has an aftermarket steering stab but may be bad it does not leack but my be weak is this poss my prob. I have 31's but plan on running 33's once I put in the d35. Is this a tpyical prob with running larger tires on a ranger. ps it has 6" total lift with 4" sus.



Thanks

 

[canyoncritter]

sounds like a caster problem to me.

 

[akalogan]

just curious when was the last time you got an alingment done?

 

[1987 DANGER RANGER]

Who knows this truck has been around for away since it started out in my fam. I plan on getting it alinged once I put the d35 in but that will have to wait until the 4.0 gets put in. Plus a little more info. When I go to flip a U turn and turn the wheel to the left all the way to lock it grabbes the wheel and will hold in that postion, and seems to turn alot sharper when turning left. When you turn to the right it doesent he seem to turn near as sharp or grabbed the wheel

 

[Explorin94]

Have you checked your front axle ujoints lately? Sometimes a bad ujoint will make the frontend wander. Could have a bad balljoint also.

 

[metalmacguyver]

ball joints and wheel bearings!

 

[samsonitesamsonite]

what are your steering angles like?

 

[Bent Bolt]

Who knows this truck has been around for away since it started out in my fam. I plan on getting it alinged once I put the d35 in but that will have to wait until the 4.0 gets put in. Plus a little more info. When I go to flip a U turn and turn the wheel to the left all the way to lock it grabbes the wheel and will hold in that postion, and seems to turn alot sharper when turning left. When you turn to the right it doesent he seem to turn near as sharp or grabbed the wheel

Sounds like a huge caster problem and steering angles. Does it have a drop pitman arm??
Also, do you have wide rims ?? Huge back spacing ??? All effect steering.

 

[1987 DANGER RANGER]

Yes it has a drop pitman the rims are 15/10. Not real sure what you guys are talking about when you state stearing angle. I know when you turn the wheel sharp and get out and look the outside wheel angles to where the top of the wheel is further out then the bottom.

 

[metalmacguyver]

ill ask the question another way, how close to parallel with the ground is your steering linkage.

better yet, could you take a picture of it?

 

[4x4junkie]

Yeah, it's possible your drop pitman arm isn't low enough. The steering linkage in most cases should be close to dead-horizontal, but sometimes (actually quite frequently) it's not, and would cause some of the problems you mention (another is excess wear that occurs on the outer tread edge of the passengerside tire only).

A longer drop pitman arm (or a linkage swap) might be what's needed.

Check the toe alignment before you start tearing anything apart though. Really bad toe could cause those issues too (but would show similar uneven wear on BOTH front tires).

 

[1987 DANGER RANGER]

Sorry for such a slow response but been busy and working nights suck. As far as I can tell the linkage seems square to the wold. I would take a pic but I have no idea on how to put it on hear. It has an aftermarket drop pitman. Plus the truck tracks real bad on paved roads which have wear marks. So can I rule out a bad stearing stab.