Pothole made me swerve. Sign off a problem?

[Chapap]

New parts:
Front L&R: radius arms and bushings, springs, shocks, calipers, rotors, bearings
Front R: I-beam bushing
About 1.5” play in the wheel

Today I hit a recessed manhole cover. The road is fairly newly paved and looked designed this way. The manhole cover was recessed about 3” and the pavement had a bit of a slope down to it.

I hit it at about 40mph and the truck, very authoritatively, swerved left a couple feet… like doing a mini moose test. I felt nothing in the wheel and it remained perfectly straight. I’ve never experienced this before. The truck generally wanders as expected… and I’ve gone thru my share of potholes. Does this sound like a sign of something wrong, or did I just hit the pothole perfectly to cause this?

 

[19Walt93]

Jack it up and find out what bent or moved, that doesn't sound good. While the front wheels are off the ground, check for looseness in the steering shaft and adjust the steering box, you want it as tight as possible without causing any drag at the center of travel. Losing steering control is far worse than losing your brakes.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Tie rods or worn steering gear is my guess. If the wheel moved but the steering wheel didnt you got an issue.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Losing steering control is far worse than losing your brakes.

Absolutly. Ill take a few chances with brakes but not steering. There are other ways to stop, no other way to steer.

 

[Chapap]

Jack it up and find out what bent or moved, that doesn't sound good. While the front wheels are off the ground, check for looseness in the steering shaft and adjust the steering box, you want it as tight as possible without causing any drag at the center of travel. Losing steering control is far worse than losing your brakes.

it drove like nothing ever happened afterwards… but that doesn’t mean something wasn’t damaged. Will check for dangerous things before my next trip. I did all the previously mentioned work one wheel at a time. Both sides passed the wiggle test and the alignment folks didn’t notice anything. I’ll have to Jack the whole front end up next weekend and do a thorough inspection.

Edit: quick inspection, saw nothing out of the ordinary. Everything straight, tight, and it appears that all the wheel slop is coming from the steering gear box. Kinda thinking that I just rolled down into hole just enough to turn the wheels left, then out to turn the wheels right. But 1.5” of slop in the wheel doesn’t seem like enough to make it unfeelable in the wheel.

 

[sgtsandman]

If you have a steering box, look at the rag joint first. Those are notorious for steering slop and if it's the original, way over due for being changed. A steering box can indeed have slop in itself and isn't out of the question but I would look at the rag joint first.

For some reason, I'm thinking your generation of Ranger was the first to get rack and pinion steering. Those don't have a rag joint and steering slop is generally not a thing with them unless the inner or outer tie rod ends are worn out. The rack can wear out but rack issues generally aren't sloppy steering.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

If you have a steering box, look at the rag joint first. Those are notorious for steering slop and if it's the original, way over due for being changed. A steering box can indeed have slop in itself and isn't out of the question but I would look at the rag joint first.

For some reason, I'm thinking your generation of Ranger was the first to get rack and pinion steering. Those don't have a rag joint and steering slop is generally not a thing with them unless the inner or outer tie rod ends are worn out. The rack can wear out but rack issues generally aren't sloppy steering.

His is a 94. So its still got the older style steering.

 

[ryan]

TTB is really bad for bump steer

 

[Chapap]

TTB is really bad for bump steer

I found this in the library.

TRS Magazine - Steering Tech - An in-depth discussion about TTB Steering and Alignment

www.therangerstation.com

I knew there were problems with the twin I beam, but didn’t realize it affected steering too. It looks like it doesn’t really become a big issue unless you’re lifting the truck.

 

[ryan]

Right, once that angle gets high it gets worse, but it is possible even in stock form as well. It's not bad when you understand that it's coming and don't overcorrect.

 

[Chapap]

I’ve seen a video, that I can’t find again, of a car on a lift demonstrating the steering. It had two separate lower control arms and when the wheel turned, they acted in a trapezoidal motion (kinda similar idea as a watts linkage). Thought it was over complicated for no reason, but I’d imagine that every steering mechanism has some inherent problems, and this was a solution to one of them.

Edit: it’s multi link suspension. Of course Audi likes to complicate things.

 

[sgtsandman]

Germans like to over complicate things. Like the 4.0 SOHC.

 

[SenorNoob]

1.5" of play in the steering wheels sounds scary to me. I can see movement from from steering wheel to tire at like 1/4" (with the power steering working)

 

[Chapap]

1.5" of play in the steering wheels sounds scary to me. I can see movement from from steering wheel to tire at like 1/4" (with the power steering working)

Really? I’ve driven some rust buckets (and some pretty nice cars) with a solid 3” of play in the wheel. From my limited experience, recirc ball steering always has some play in it and R/P systems are far tighter. I was actually pretty impressed with this truck. I always figured the worst that would happen is the bushings would wear out and everything would be held together by a little bolt in a big hole. Can’t do that for too awful long, but it doesn’t seem to be a pants on fire emergency.

Kinda related:
I drove my Grand Marquis with the trailing arm bushings completely gone before I noticed something was off. That was a scary surprise when I figured it out… Those four linkages were the only thing holding the axle on. The car drove like it was on rails after I changed them.

 

[SenorNoob]

All true. Maybe my tolerance for slack is less than most.

I know my dad tried to get me to drive an old Isuzu box truck converted for trash usage that had so much slop you turned the wheel a full turn, bumped it in that direction and started turning back the other way to ump it again before it changed lanes. He said it felt fine.