Well i have had the truck for about 4 years now and it had a body lift and 35's when i bought it. I can not remember back then if the steering was loose or not. Right now I am running it with 33's. Here recently i guess the past year or so the truck has really begun to scare me. It follows every bump in the road. Out here in the country the roads have lips that go from the road to the shoulder and if the front tire catches that it will jerk the whole truck. It will do this is other places too. Any thing with a small lip. The steering i guess is loose cause i can be driving and i can rock the steering wheel back and forth about an inch or so either way and the truck wont turn or anything. I guess it has play in the steering is what i am trying to say.

My dad had looked something up on the internet about something in the steering box that he called a worm gear that i could tighten and it would take the play out. I thought i would come on here and ask first befor i did anything to get yalls opinions first.

 

I'm having the same issue, any help would be great!

 

There's a nut and lock nut on the top of your steering box. Righty tighty lefty loosey. Don't tighten too far though because if you go too far the box I junk. The nut tightens the lash of the worm and roller.

 

Before you go messing with that nut let's understand what it is. First it will not take out any play in the steering. It is a preload nut. When the gear box is at its center the preload provides slight tension to help keep it there. That's why if your steering is aligned properly you can feel when your straight forward. Tightening it won't pull the wheels to center just make it harder to turn the steering wheel. Now it does get loose overtime as the torque bar wears. If you have a lot of wander you likely have problems with your steering linkage and alignment. Especially with bigger tires. There are a lot of writeups on the procedure but check your tie rods, ball joints and wheel bearings. Then check your bushing shocks and springs. Finally check your alignment. When you've got your steering dialed in and running straight then you want to adjust your preload. You will want an inch pound torque wrench to measure how much it take to turn the wheel off center. A good alignment shop may even do the preload for you of you ask.

 

My bronco was like that I ended up rotating the tires, new shocks, and a new steering box. Before I couldn't pass 45mph without it scaring the crap outta me. Now I can run 80 no problem. Tires helped for a while then it got bad again so I changed the box and that did the trick.

 

Same same in my 96 f150. If get it done at a shop let us kno wat u paid if possible.

 

X2.. Especially ball joints and tie rod ends. You've been running33s- 35 s 4 years and who knows when they were replaced before that. Ball joint wear is the price you pay for larger tires.

 

My experience with tightening the preload is that the steering wheel felt tighter, but the truck still wandered all over.

 

When i first got the truck my dad had the whole front end worked on. Practically new everything plus new tires. So the front end is only 4 years old and i have only put 20k miles on it in 4 years. Bought it with 164k miles and now its got 182k

 

Well... I have read over on another board that some guys don't get so many years/miles out of a new set of bj's. Factors such as what type, how they were installed, driving style(lots or wheeling) and tire size affect performance. How is your tire wear? Then there are tie rod ends. They can wear also. Probably should be replaced when bj's are done. Wheel bearings if worn or not properly torqued could be another problem. Rag joint in the steering column. And, maybe your steering gear has had it. I've been looking at one called a "Readhead" and there's a U joint coupling that goes in place of the rag joint.