Wandering truck and hissing sound

[sagebel]

The truck seems to be wandering quite a bit lately with a lot of wheel play. There is also a hissing sound (like when you slowly open a high pressure valve) when turning hard at slow speeds. Ball joints have about 2000 miles on them. 188,*** on the truck. Any ideas? I am thinking steering box but I'd like some opinions before I start spending $$$.

Scott

 

[Frankenstien]

The problem is.............. YOUR TRUCK MISSES THE NW.......

You may be suffering the same problems that I am, Leaf spring bushings are a bit work as well as the sway bar and others. I'll be looking at an "Energy" Bushing Kit soon for all four corners.

 

[sagebel]

We all miss the NW but that may not be a problem in Spring 2010. I'd like to get this fixed before that trip. My front leafs and bushings were replaced about 20000 miles ago. I am also planning on larger sway bars but not right now.

 

[Frankenstien]

Scott if you are seeing more than about 10 min of play in your steering wheel, there is an adjustment on the steering box itself. there is a worm gear screw adj on the top of the Box, loosen the retaining nut (pay attention to the clock position or the screw head) turn the screw clockwise adding maybe 5 min of position. Run the truck to see if this helped. I don't recommend going much more than 15 min of turn total. This should help in taking out quite a bit of play out of the box.

 

[sagebel]

Did that a couple weeks ago. No change. I also noticed yesterday that I can rotate the center link by hand. Is this normal? I just went over 190,000 miles yesterday. The steering gear, tie rods, center link, stabilizer, and ball joints were all new at 98K. I guess it may be time.

 

[Frankenstien]

Center link should be able to "Move"... but not typical of just hand pressure, usually you have to have a wrench on it to move it much. I'm about 2500 miles from that 200 K mark, still have the original suspension parts, thought they are getting tired, only things I've changed were the shocks. As I bought the Monroe's with a life time warranty, I change them out every 2 years, weather they need it or not.