I've got manual steering on my 68 F100. It's 2wd short bed and it's bad. It's a bitch to turn no matter what speed your going. It wanders all over the road and has bump steer pretty bad. I am running 275/60/15s all the way around to I don't expect it to be easy but I would think it would be better going down the road. Any tips on where I need to start looking for the problem.
Sounds like you may have already replaced the suspension/steering components so about the only thing to help would be to add power steering or a shock absorber style steering stabilizer.
Randy
1970 F100 Sport Custom Limited LWB, 302cid, 3 on the tree. NO A/C, NO P/S, NO P/B. Currently in 1000 pcs while rebuilding. Project thread: http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 22&t=59995 Plan: 351w, C4, LSD, pwr front disc, p/s, a/c, bucket seats, new interior and paint.
1987 F-150 XLT Lariat, 5.0/C6 auto.
I had manual steering and went to power steering and the wandering, bump steer, etc...got worse. Turning the wheel got so much easier and I would not go back to manual - just saying they are different issues and don't treat them as one issue. Going to power steering will not fix the handling.
Keep the manual for now and work on the handling. Start with basics to get rid of any slop from worn components. Big issue is alignment. 99% of shops that do alignments can only adjust Toe on these trucks. They will charge you full price like they something but Toe is the only thing that is easily adjustable. For Camber and Castor, you need to find a specialty shop that can cold bend the I beams. Lucky for me I found one near me in San Jose, CA. They are out there - got to do some research to find one.
If steering wheel is loose first item to check is rag joint. Not too bad to change it yourself.
I added a bump steer shock... Not expensive and can do it yourself. I think it helped but if everything is perfect there may be no need for it...
Ordered front/back sway bars that just came in. May install this weekend. Hopefully that will help handling. My handling is pretty good - just trying to see if truck can be made better and feel more stable when zipping down the road and making quick lane changes...
My F-250 had terrible steering, 16.5x10's, replaced the rag joint, steering was tight, just all over the place. Put stock wheels and tires back on it, and I can steer it with two fingers (manual steering).
tsheery - good to know the difference you experienced with tire sizes. I have 31X10.5s all around and it has taken work to get the truck to track well.
Another experience I can share... I had kingpins replaced quite a while back and the wandering was then worse than before. Later on, when getting front end properly aligned they worked on getting the kingpins properly greased. This also helped. You want the truck to track straight so things cant be too tight (like kingpins).
I also replaced Bendix PS box with one from Red Head cause a guy at the front end shop said it had some play (in/out not left/right). But this didn't do much for tracking - it did make steering wheel feel perfect with zero slop...
when i first started daily driving my bump i thought power steering would be one of the first things i had to fix.
2 years later it's somewhere down the list and might never get done. just part of driving an old truck i guess. I imagine if you're switching between vehicles it feels heavy but driving only the truck i'm used to it by now and don't find it annoying.
