I think something is bent...

[nooblet]

So some dumb $(*@# pulled out in front of me the other day. I had a choice of hitting her or the curb, I chose the curb

The scenario was I swerved right, driving my right front tire to the curb. I wasn't going very fast at all, but still wouldn't have had enough room to stop (that tells you how blatantly she pulled out in front of me). My rear tire never hit the curb, so I can rule out any rear axle problems.

So now my steering wheel is about half a turn off and my truck pulls to the right BAD. I looked at everything and I can't visibly tell anything is bent.

This would have to be a problem with the draglink or tie-rod wouldn't it? These are the only two things that I can think of that would be weak enough to affected by a curb.

What do you guys think? I took it to Pep Boys for an alignment, but their machine was, "unsafe for the vehicle weight" The manager told me to take it to another shop that does medium duty trucks. Should I get my truck aligned? I'm not sure it will fix this problem seeing how far off my steering is...

As always, thanks in advance for the advice!

Chris

[cummins king]

usaly it would just need an aliment but when your at the shop ask them to check if its bent

[flashgordon]

Its 4x4 right?
If so you gear box has shifted on the frame or brace.
I did something similar when i thought i had cleared a bolder, next to a camping sight........ was traveling at basically 0 mile per hour but it hit hard!

Steering wheel was off and i thought that i had messed up something bad.

Ended up being the gear box has shifted on the frame (slightly) cause the wheel to be turn of center by about a 1/8 of a turn.

Don't know about your pull........but if it's cracked the frame, it will be right close to the radiator...........altho it's usually the drivers side frame rail that will crack....


Flash

[nooblet]

Its 4x4 right?
If so you gear box has shifted on the frame or brace.
I did something similar when i thought i had cleared a bolder, next to a camping sight........ was traveling at basically 0 mile per hour but it hit hard!

Steering wheel was off and i thought that i had messed up something bad.

Ended up being the gear box has shifted on the frame (slightly) cause the wheel to be turn of center by about a 1/8 of a turn.

Don't know about your pull........but if it's cracked the frame, it will be right close to the radiator...........altho it's usually the drivers side frame rail that will crack....


Flash

I will check all of that, thanks.

Chris

[burnt_servo]

use a tape measure to the front and rear toe in , it should be roughly 1/8 to 1/4 inch toed in on the front .

then i'd check the centering pin the locates the axel to spring , they can shear off and have the axle move just enough that it looks fine , but makes the truck pull to one side , and dogtrack .

depending on how you hit the curb , you may have also tweaked the frame , there is a lot of weight on the front wheels with that engine .

something to think about , if you noticed before the accident , the aligment of the fenders and the doors , the gap bewteen them , if the gap has gotten bigger or smaller , or changed in some other way , more than likely the frame got tweaked .

[Philip]

Check the steering box mounting bracket. I bet you bent or broke it. They are a weak spot on our trucks. I broke one last week just backing out of a parking place.

[nooblet]

I looked at all my steering stuff today after school and couldn't see anything blatantly broken/bent.

Tomorrow I'm going to pull the wheels off and take a closer look at everything. I'm going to take some pictures of everything if I can't find whats wrong and let you guys look at it yourselves.

The steering is literally half a rotation of the steering wheel off, so whatever is wrong is not just too small to be noticeable.

After driving it for a little while longer I've realized that the alignment isn't too much more off than it was before I hit that curb, as far as drifting goes. Its just that the steering is about half a turn off.

Thanks for the advice and help, pictures will probably be up tomorrow

Chris

[Bogie]

You may have sheared the centering pin of the leaf look for signs that the axle has shifted rearward

[MMiller]

You are probably going to need a steering gear box. Is the box leaking where the shaft from the steering wheel goes in? I've replaced the steering gear box in mine after dropping it in a hole or a washout offroading. I've tried resealing the leaking input to no avail.

That's where I would look.

Michael

[nooblet]

Nothing is leaking.

I'm pretty convinced I sheered an spring center pin. I got under my axle and looked at it real close and the axle looks crooked on the driver side. since the spring perch is the differential housing on the passenger side its hard to tell if its crooked or not.

I'm going to drop the axle and check the pins since I can't find anything else wrong.

Does anyone know offhand the dimensions of the center pins? I would like to get some before I drop the axle.

Chris

P.S. I haven't seen around in a while MMiller! I haven't seen you post since I rebuilt my IP about a year ago. Thanks for your advice back then by the way, you helped me out a lot!

[KTA]

I have also seen that plastic bushing on the top of the kingpins get broken, and that will cause steering/alignment issues as well.

[GO OVRIT]

Center pins spacing is 32.5".