catching air and damage?

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azrider

azrider

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Mar 11, 2008
Threads
148
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1,527
Location
Tigard Oregon
spent the weekend at the Surf N Turf event at Pismo Beach CA and had to jump the dunes. I got some pretty good air. After airing up it tracks straight down the road and everything is working perfectly. Oh, well one thing I wanted to ask about, my steering wheel is off center now, not bent or anything, but cocked to the right a little. Wasnt like that before. What would you guys say caused this and how do I put it back straight? Another question, if drivability is great, is there anything I should still look at since I did the jumping? It was awesome though, landing was rock solid and the my cruiser is the best.
air 1.webp
bank turn.webp
the pose.webp
 
LOL...dude that is an f-ing awesome air shot! You're the man and have balls to spare! I don't know if I'd want to jump my truck but I'm glad you jumped yours!

Surprised the air bags didn't blow on ya!
 
:eek:


I hope that picture was worth whatever ordering lots of new parts from cdan's gonna be.



Start by crawling underneath and check for obvious broken/warped stuff. You can do the normal tests to check to tierod ends and wheel bearings (jack up the truck and check for play in the tires). Make sure you didn't blow a shock coming down.

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It's really hard to tell, but is your PS tire pointed more to the left than the DS tire? (more towards the PS.)
 
but wouldnt you notice bent or broken stuff after driving down the road and interstate? I did 80 mph from Pismo Beach to Northridge, a few hours drive. Absolutely the same. I will put it up in the air when I get home to take a look(All the way to Phoenix-6 hours). maybe stop over at Tools shop and have him take a quick look too. Well whatever is broken or tweaked is well worth the fun I had plus the awesome pictures of it in the air. By guessing, I would say 6 or more feet.
 
A typical symptom of a bent relay rod, is a 'crooked' steering wheel. It does not affect the alignment or anything like that.

When bent, the distance from your passenger side knuckle to your steering arm becomes shorter, which cocks the steering wheel to one side.

Check your rod ends while you're at it.
 
Yup, when the truck goes straight but the steering wheel is bent it means something not right in the rod and rod ends in front of the axle. The rod and rod ends behind the axle are responsible for alignment while the front rod and rod ends are responsible for steering. Fortunately these are not expensive parts. As long as the other stuff holds up to the abuse you can simply have fun.

And yes, I want more pics of it. This is really cool.
 
There is also a way to straighten your steering wheel. It may not be as bad off as folks make it out to sound, then again maybe it is :doh: But if it drove home straight and fine, id be tempted to believe it may not be that bad off. Try and raise the front end and adjust the relay (?) up front like shown here.

IH8MUD™ Forums - View Single Post - Adjusting the Steering Wheel to the Straight Position

inspect the sector shaft and pitman arm and see if there was any movement as well. There should be a mark scribed for their original positions.

or if you like erics entertaining posts and lots of numbers and hubub

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/68117-need-straighten-your-steering-wheel-numbers.html

do and advanced search for steering wheel in 80s tech and there are 4 pages of threads to pick from

Might as well take a look at your oil pan too :D hope its nothing too bad
 
let's not jump the gun here guys, it's not the end of the world. Often when one actually gets out and wheels and has a few hard hits, it will knock the drag link out. So get under the truck and try to adjust the drag link first. Then you'll know if anything is broken.
 
I got it on video too! just let me figure out how to post up a video. More pics to come. jumping it really wasnt any big deal. Flying thru the air was cool and when i landed it was one bounce in the sand and it felt solid the whole time. of course ill do it again, and having to spend a few bucks to fix it is well worth it.
 
That is some sick air. Looking forward to the video. Post on youtube and link it here if you can.
 
Adjusting the drag link will re=center the wheel. No big deal and 10 minutes work.

Look very, very carefully at the sector shaft coming out of the steering box. When that gets twisted, even a bit, the steering goes off center. Look right where the splines go into the pittman arm. This problem is surprisingly common on 80 series trucks.

Nice air though.
 
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