Steering issue

[6768chevylover]

I'm sure this issue has been brought up before. My steering has been pretty good till up to this weekend. I use to drive it every day till about 4 months ago when the tranny blew. I did a manual swap and been only driving it on weekends. Now when I drive and steer it scares the crap out of me cause it doesn't seem to want to steer until it feels like grabbing. I sway back and forth in my lane till I can control it. When I'm at a stop ill look out my window at the tires and they move on command so this is why I'm asking this question. What the hell, what is going on?

[cleszkie]

Check your spring eye bushing, Check your leaf spring centering pins, check the rear spring eye bolts. If any of these are deteriorated, broken, or missing, it could cause your steering problems. Just had a guy on here that had similar problems and found that his front spring eye bushing was completely gone on the driver side.

[81turbota]

That was me, here's the thread:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=743532

Multiple culprits that clezskie mentioned are in that thread.

The bushings cured most of it, it's no longer scary and unpredictable.

I'll be replacing the steering components and installing a dropped pitman arm to see if it can be improved further.

[6768chevylover]

Wow, fixed my issue. It was the center pins, they were deteriorated on the bottom. running good now... thanks guys!

[hemi43]

Originally Posted by 6768chevylover

Wow, fixed my issue. It was the center pins, they were deteriorated on the bottom. running good now... thanks guys!

Can you elaborate on which pin? Do you mean the pin that locates the spring to the axle? I'm sure I'm not understanding correctly because this pin is only used to hold the springs together and to locate while assembling.
thanks

[6768chevylover]

The pins in the center of the springs that hold the springs together. It made such a big difference . By all means its still not perfect but the way it was, it was all over the road. Now I have some control..

[hemi43]

Originally Posted by 6768chevylover

The pins in the center of the springs that hold the springs together. It made such a big difference . By all means its still not perfect but the way it was, it was all over the road. Now I have some control..

I must be missing something, because once the U-bolts are tightened, those pins do absolutely nothing. Just curious. :-)

[6768chevylover]

For what I was told, they could slide.

[72k5ls]

The center tie bolt on the springs holds the springs together and locates the spring on the axle without it the springs will slide all over the place. I had a tie bolt break once while up in the mountains was not fun getting back to town when the axle was walking allover the place.

[6768chevylover]

My only issue is now when I take off and don't let the engine heat up to temp its a little squirrely driving but once i'm heated up the steering is fine.. what could this be? the steering box!

[6768chevylover]

Its been several months since this was last posted but as time went by my steering was still a little squirrely and actually got worse after the center pin replacement. I had my blazer inspected and they had told me it passed but needed to replace the u joint on the front axle on my passenger side. It was pretty bad. When replacing it only one cap had bearings in it. I replaced the u joint and my steering is nice and tight again. You never know what it could be. I guess you need to check everything and eventually something will show its ugly head. Hope this helps out for others.. -Mike

[simicrintz]

Had a similar issue with a horrible vibration in my Jeepster that I could not find. Came home one day and saw a bunch of little "cylinders" on the garage floor. Since my wife does crafts I made the assumption that she had been cutting up paper clips (a stupid assumption I will admit!) until I realized they were needle bearings. Replaced and vibration gone! Glad you found your problem and have it solved!

[6768chevylover]

Having a similar issue again but now I know its either my steering box or pump. Steering gets loose when the truck is on. When I first start to take of after start up, if I was to steer all the way to the right(or I could do left, doesn't matter) my steering does not reset itself on its own. I have to straighten the wheel out. Also when I do that I feel resistance, then when im driving I can feel it fighting me from the right side then it jerks my blazer to the left and I have to correct my steering cause im gonna hit someone. but then my steering wheel feels normal but still does not reset its self when I do turns. Is it my steering box or pump? I don't want to be forking money out on things I don't need... Hopefully this makes sense.

[Bigdav160]

Sounds like the seals (on the spool valve) in the box are shot

[6768chevylover]

How much of a pain is it to do this task of fixing that? I hear steering boxes are a sensitive thing to mess with.

[GMC-YA68]

I've swapped 2 different (redhead) steering boxes into mine and it has never wanted to return to center.