Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and fpearson
Member
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2008
- Messages
- 12
- Vehicle Year
- '97
- Transmission
- Manual
I have a 96 ranger 4 cyl, 184k. It's been aligned and is within spec. When I grab the shaft between the steering wheel and input shaft into the box and turn it, I can see the spline going into the box rotate, but when I sight down the side of the box it looks like the pitman arm is "racking" back and forth (indicating that the output shaft on the gearbox is moving radially). My thought is that the bearing at the output side of the box is worn and that's giving me the "racking" feeling in the steering.
A little more about the symptoms: not really noticeable around town, but on the highway, if I turn the wheel, not much happens until I hit a sweet spot and then it seems like it wants to oversteer. Originally I thought it could have been a castor thing, but everything is in spec. It has matching stock tires up front, tie rods are solid, the only lost motion is between the box input and the pittman arm (I'm assuming some is from the box itself).
By the way, the box has been tightened as much as possible (which seemed to help, but that may have been placebo effect). I know they sell seal rebuild kits for the boxes, but has anyone ever replaced the bearings instead of buying a reman unit?
A little more about the symptoms: not really noticeable around town, but on the highway, if I turn the wheel, not much happens until I hit a sweet spot and then it seems like it wants to oversteer. Originally I thought it could have been a castor thing, but everything is in spec. It has matching stock tires up front, tie rods are solid, the only lost motion is between the box input and the pittman arm (I'm assuming some is from the box itself).
By the way, the box has been tightened as much as possible (which seemed to help, but that may have been placebo effect). I know they sell seal rebuild kits for the boxes, but has anyone ever replaced the bearings instead of buying a reman unit?
