Steering Slop

[Bolt]

I have over an inch of play in my steering wheel on my F250. I tried cranking down the adjustment screw on the steering box, it may have helped a little, but the play is still mostly there. I put over 2 turns on the set screw, and the most noticeable difference is that it steers a little stiffer now. If I turn the shaft by hand under the hood I can feel the play, it turns real easy until the play is taken up, so I'm thinking it's in the steering box. Any advice? Do I need to replace it? If so, with what? Factory, rebuilt, etc? Does RedHead make boxes this new?

 

[Todd Tumbleston]

Mine is loose too but even more noticable since my steerint stabilizer shock blew out........How many miles to you have...????

 

[Bolt]

75,000 miles, but hard, plenty of dirt/off road miles in there. I put a new stabilizer on 2 weeks ago to see if that was the the problem, as the old one was seeping some oil, but it didn't really tighten anything up. Seems to me the slop is in the box, as I can turn the column by hand under the hood very easily until the slop is taken up.

 

[DaveBen]

New steering box is in order. Don't get a cheap one at Auto Zone. Get a Real Ford Box.

Dave

 

[Todd Tumbleston]

I guess you could hit your local Junk Yard..........check the prices and maybe get to see what it came off of...or ebay has quite a few of them....I need to replace my stabilizer....i'm sure it's not helping the wear on my gear box...Good luck....

 

[Bolt]

I ordered one from Red Head today. He says they even do quite a few 07's already. Told me a factory box has only one size balls that they throw in there and call it good, they do each box individually and their balls go up in .002 increments, and as such, they have a much tighter box. And they are about 100 bucks cheaper than the cheapest online ford part I've found. Should be here this week, I'm ready to tighten this rig back up!

 

[dpantazis]

details on the Red Head box?

 

[Bolt]

Red-Head Steering Gears, Seattle WA - Red-Head Steering Gears Home

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Have you checked out your ball joints??

I just replaced mine, and it took out quite a bit of steering slop. I still have some slop. With over 290,000 miles, I plan on replacing the steering linkage ends to see if more slop goes away. If that doesn't get it all, I'll do the steering gear too.

 

[Bolt]

The ball joints seem fine, I put it on the lift the other day and wiggled everything around, the only thing I noticed is that the ball joints on the tie rod are easy to turn front to back, but there is no slop in them, and definitely no side to side motion. Also, the movement was clearly between the steering wheel and the pitman arm, you could wiggle the wheel an inch and a half before the pitman arm would begin to move.

Also always a good idea to make sure your track bar is tight for you 05 and up people....