Joelwit

So I have been noticing my steering binding more and more often and figured I probably need a new power steering rack. I was going to ignore it until it gave me more problems, but half the time my steering wheel is tilted 10-20 degrees to the right when driving straight down the road, and after a loud clunk/Jolt from the steering, the truck will drive straight down the road with my steering wheel perfectly straight. I just aligned it less than a month ago when I put my new tires on, so I feel like the steering rack is just getting loose and worn out. I do not want a bad steering rack to make my brand new tires wear unevenly and the steering wheel thing annoys the hell out of me.
At the same time I am doing the rack, I am wondering if I should be doing Ball Joints, tie rod ends stabilizer bar end-links, etc. None of these parts are acting up at all, but I feel like if I am going to have the front end apart, I may as well do them if its only going to cost an extra 2-300 in parts. What are your thoughts? The truck has 149k and counting, and I want it to drive as close to a new truck as possible.

07lftdstx

Check your front upper control arms, they are notorious for knocking noises. Stick a pry bar in between the top of UCA and the spring and pull down on the bar. If there is movement replace the UCA.

Joelwit

Should I do this test with or without load on the suspension? I have access to a lift here at work.
The noise come even when I am not moving, so I feel like it is a steering issue, not a suspension issue?

07lftdstx

Without a load so on a lift. Shake the tire at 12 and 6 for ball joints and 3 and 9 for tie rod play.

07lftdstx

Also what year do you have?

Joelwit

truck is an 05 lariat crew 4x4
I did the test for balljoints and tie rods and all components felt sound

07lftdstx

Hmmm sounding like the steering shaft ujoints are binding up. There's really no way of checking if they are binding, only if you pull the shaft out.

Especial86

iTrader: (1)

Slather that u joint with a generous amount of grease.. If the binding and hard spots in the steering go away then you will know what to fix.. I did this to mine months ago when it was binding bad and it's been smooth ever since. So smooth in fact that I decided to just leave it alone..
You need to really massage that grease onto the u joint. I also put Lucas oil stabilizer on the u joint before I greased it..

FFX150

My steering was binding also a couple months ago
So I took it to my local Ford dealership
Turned out it was the u-joints in the column
About 400 is what it cost me to get it fixed
eBay has the column for about 125. I have no idea what your looking at to put it in but might be worth your time if you are able to install yourself

Joelwit

I did a "proper" ball joint test (according to my buddy who is an ase master tech) by jacking the truck up at the lower control arm and then checking for play and he determined my lower ball joints are bad. He also suggested that maybe my rack is moving around and the mounts to hold it to the body/frame are loose or bad. I guess that would explain why the steering wheel is at different angles all the time.