steering wheel slip/crooked

[liamkeough88]

howdy,
Installed the extended pitman arm, got it aligned. and took for a test drive. Locked the hubs put it in 4wd and took a slow hard turn. Now the Aussie locker and the fresh fat rubber on the front obviously puts a lot of stress on the steering assembly but unexpectedly the steering wheel slipped and the now the wheel is crooked.
Any thoughts on what went loose?
I marked the pitman arm and gearbox with chalk to see if the splines were slipping but couldn't get it to do it again. Is the pitman arm supposed to slide all the way up on the gear box? I thought i got it all the way on but there is still a good half inch of spline showing.
.. in addition if you look here http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100466
it may have something to do with it. Thought i got the steering shaft all straightened out but maybe is screwed up on the inside..
any ideas?

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

The spline on the steering box is tapered so the pitman arm will only slide up so far.

How much crooked are we talking about here?

 

[liamkeough88]

went from being dead on straight to a quarter to half turn crooked when driving straight.

 

[4x4junkie]

Is anything loose up front such as the tierod adjuster sleeves?

 

[liamkeough88]

ill have my alignment guy take another crack at it. but by sight everything looks good. i suppose if the toe went out he will be able to tell as soon as it gets on the alignment rack. i was more worried that the steering shaft had twisted .. (if thats possible). not sure what everything looks/operates like in the column.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

I've twisted a skyjacker pitman arm to the point my steering wheel was 180 out and my steering shaft was fine.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

are your ball joints good? i just replaced the passenger side upper and lower after finding some play in the wheel after my last oil change/ tire rotation and after doing so my truck returned to its normal straight line driving self. there was no noticeable noise coming from the joints when driving and i didnt feel any loosness in the steering but the steering wheel always oitned at 11 ocklock in order to go straight and it had been this was since my last alignment. your steering shaft should telescope to a point as it has to allow a certain amount of give for body/ frame movement.

 

[liamkeough88]

every single damn thing is brand new. rebuilt the whole dana 35 before it went under the truck. hopefully will have it back up for an alignment check 2morrow night. Ill keep you posted.

 

[4x4junkie]

Did you hit anything hard while you were offroad? Maybe something along the line of what Sasquatch mentioned happened (sector shaft maybe).

 

[liamkeough88]

Did you hit anything hard while you were offroad? Maybe something along the line of what Sasquatch mentioned happened (sector shaft maybe).

nope. was just pounding the pavement. was the first real test drive after wrapping up the project.

 

[4.0B2]

i'd run it back to the shop were you got it aligned and let them look at it...

did you try moving the pitman arm? it's gotta be the pitman or steering shaft right?

 

[legoms013]

Make sure the nut on the sector shaft hasn't worked its way loose. Ford's torque spec is around 250 ft*lbs, and if its not that tight, then the nut will work its self loose sometimes. This could lead to the pitman arm working its way loose as well.

I have to tighten mine every 5000 miles or so, just because I don't have any way of putting the proper torque spec on that nut (even with the proper 1-5/16" end wrench).

Just a thought.

 

[liamkeough88]

alright.. so best my alignment guy can tell the the upper rag joint on the steering shaft is screwed. Hard for me to look at it and see the problem but he is telling me its slightly bent/twisted and looks to have some play in it when i jimmy the wheel back and forth. I suppose that's not outside the realm of possibility. Anyone seen this problem before?

 

[Earl43P]

I did on a 76 F150.

Turned out that the pinch bolt was loose (from the rag joint to the steering gearbox spline). If you had that joint loose, that bolt needs to be stupid tighter than you'd think. You can see that play pretty well though.

Had the actual rag joint caused that much steering wheel misalignment, you wouldn't be driving it.

 

[liamkeough88]

"Had the actual rag joint caused that much steering wheel misalignment, you wouldn't be driving it.".. that's probably true.
And come to think of it i seem to remember having to use an impact gun to loosen the shaft from the gear box... I guess ill take the shaft of and straighten everything out and tighten that thing on there with a a vengeance.