Wondering steering

[lumberjack]

My 1991 fj80 is starting to fallow groves in the road and the steering is getting sloppy. I know I need new sway bar pushing but I don't think that would be causing all of this. I looked at my tie rod ends today and they seem all good. (No slop in them). If anybody has sum suggestions as things to look at first, that would be greatly appreciated. This problem has gotten so bad that I have stopped driving the truck.

 

[concretejungle]

I see you are running a 4 inch lift and 33s. Did you correct your caster when you performed the lift? Was it tracking straight after the lift? What about after adding the 33s? I have a wondering steering truck but i also have 0 degrees of caster which sucks.

 

[lumberjack]

Well, I purchased this truck with the lift and the 33 on it. I am not sure if the caster was corrected or not but the truck drove fine since I bought it 2 years ago. This has just become a problem in the last 6 month. I had not done anything to it before this started to happen. I have noticed that my powering steering box has been leaking fluid for some time now. Not sure if the box could get that worn out to cause the wondering or not. Is there any way to check if the cast was corrected or not easily.

 

[mabrodis]

What tire pressure are you running? And what tires? My guess is the problem has always been there but was masked by a good steering stabilizer and probably good shocks. Now that those are getting some wear, it's showing up.

Without playing with the caster I don't think there is anyway to stop the wandering. Mine was quite bad and when you hit the brakes it grabbed ruts, swayed violently each direction etc. I had never addressed the caster problems (I have OME caster correction bushings, but more lift than they can correct), and like your's, it kept getting worse. I think for me it's a mixture of dead steering stabilizer (mine has a dent in it, is your's still the factory one?), loose shocks, etc. I did a cut/weld mod to adjust the caster and honestly it made a huge difference, rather surprising actually.

But check tire pressures first, also rotate your tires, etc, see if it makes any difference at all.

 

[concretejungle]

I did a cut/weld mod to adjust the caster and honestly it made a huge difference, rather surprising actually.

I have been thinking about that route. I'm going to wait cause christo said he's coming out with the plats and everything in December. So we'll see.

 

[mabrodis]

I would definetly wait to see if there is an easier approach. It's messy and a pain IMO. I think Christo's pieces will still have to be welded on, however, once welded then you can adjust the caster whenever you want, something I can't do (don't really need to, but if I lift it more! )

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Try turning your tie rod 1/4 turn....if toe is out or zero it can cause wandering

 

[landtank]

How many miles on that pig and have you had the ft axle serviced? Maaybe a loose wheel bearing or a bad trunion throwing off the alignment. You should check for caster correction anyway. The more popular option would be bushings which are yellow in color and pressed into the control armas at the axle, aniother option is a drop plate that is welded to the rear of the arm at the pivot point. Might check both of those to see if something has been done.

 

[lumberjack]

I am running Bridgestone Duller A/Ts on this truck and I think I run them at about 35 most of the time. I do try and rotate them on a constant basis. This truck does have 220000 miles on it but I did rebuild the whole front end about 2 years ago and the truck drove well till now. You are all starting to get me worried on this caster thing. The truck did have a lot of play in the steering when I first purchased it and I removed the stock steering stabilizer and replaced it with man-a-fre's old man emu steering stabilizer and that made a huge difference in steering. Is there any way that I can check the caster easily to see if this is my problem? One other problem that I have is that I do not know exactly how much of a lift is on this truck or by who it was made. Also as Mabrodis said I did have the same problem with the truck pulling to the side when I hit the breaks.

 

[concretejungle]

Have you tried adjusting the play in the steering wheel on the PS box? There is an adjustment that can be made. My truck had too much free play in the steering for my taste, so i tightened it up. Now it's much better.

I don't think you can check the caster without taking it to an alignment shop.

With your comment about wander when you hit the brakes, i would really guess it's caster as that's what mine does.

 

[MoJ]

Replacing my OEM stabilizer helped. It had began to leak it's oil out.