I'm hoping someone here can help....

My daughter drives our 2000 Durango 4x4 4.7 liter. Her friend took it for a joyride and ran it into a ditch (we think). The passenger side ball joint appeared to be broken, the wheel was askew. The kid's dad had his mechanic work on it. All they did was repair the ball joint. I was not there when it was picked up but it was basically undriveable. Apparently, the mechanic said he could not get it to align. He had pulled the passenger side tie rod all the way in, and there was about 13 threads visible on driver side tie rod. It would barely turn to the left, pulled badly to the right, and was very hard to turn.

We have since replaced the power steering pump, rack and pinion assembly, and both outer tie rods. The steering wheel does turn easily now, what little it will turn. There is about 1/4 rotation to the left, but the wheels basically don't turn. There is about 3/4 rotation to the right, and the wheels will turn. We think the steering wheel may have been rotated when it was not connected to the pinion, based on the position of the steering wheel when the pinion was dead center. Or maybe there is an issue with the steering column. The steering wheel was basically upside down. Just eyeballing, it looks like the wheels may not want to align again either, even after the parts were replaced.

Any suggestion on why the steering wheel movement is so restricted, especially to the left?

Thanks,

 

you could have a bent A arm that would cause it not to align for the steering did you bleed the air out of the rack and pinion

 

If you mean bleeding the power steering system, we can't turn the steering wheel from full lock left to full lock right, which I think is what you are referring to. I'd have to remove the steering knuckle and put a wrench on the pinion. I don't want to do that while the engine is running.

If the A arm is bent, would it be possible, with the steering knuckle disconnected from the pinion, to turn the hubs from left to right by pushing and pulling on the tie rods? It seems to me if it is suspension related, the problem would be there regardless of whether the steering shaft is connected or not. If it's a problem with the steering, then the wheels should turn with modest effort by pushing/pulling on the tie rods or hubs when the steering is disconnected. Is that right?

 

the bleeding of the power steering system is actually done with the engine OFF and rotate the wheel lock to lock (tires in the air of course)

as for the problem, something is bent under there and wasnt properly repaired, an A arms i possible, but i would be under there looking for something that is hitting when the wheel reaches the end of its travel because something must be stopping it from turning correctly.

also the only part that you replaces which should have required the steering shaft be disconnected is the rack and pinion assembly.

 

The first thing I would do is remove the outer tie rod from both the steering knuckles. Then I would physically feel the turning radius and any limitations, as well as look for anything bent that would give the wheel a caster affect, meaning a low front to back, meaning a tilt to the back or front that would throw off the caster alignment.

Next I would check the control arms for bends or broken welds, this includeds both the lower and upper control arms. Next I would be looking at the control arm bushings to see if they had ripped or are dislodged, as well as the straightness of the frame to joint welds on the mounting plates. Next I would replace both upper and lower ball joints. Lastly the upper and lower control arms.

Phyisically put, the main weight of the truck is on the lower control arm right? So if you run into a ditch the wheel would be subjected to a lowering effect and ramming into a complete stop, followed by a partial upheaval effect as the front end might pull back out on top of the other side. This means a hell of a lot of torque is going into the lower control arm, and being the upper is basically held on by only the upper ball joint while the lower is held abruptly the upper joint fails. So if the upper was replaced and everything looks great then I would look closer to the lower.

Also the physical feel of the front wheel might help you out. Also what about a front wheel bearing?

All in all you are going to have to destingish between a steering issue, and a wheel issue.

 

Yes, this seems to be the next hurdle. Thanks for all the suggestions. I won't be able to look at it until next weekend, at the earliest. Just too much going on.

 

I finally had a chance to mess with it a bit today. The plan was to jack up the front end, remove the steering coupler from the rack and pinion unit, and try to turn the front wheels by hand, and separately, turn the steering wheel with it disengaged from the rack. I figured one of two things would happen, we would be able to turn the wheels/tires right to left, which would indicate the problem is with the steering column; or, the wheels would not turn, but the steering would, in which case it would be a suspension problem.

It turns out that when the steering column is disconnected from the rack, we can turn the wheels easily AND turn the steering wheel as well. I did not anticipate this result, and I don't know what it means. One might assume it's the rack, but we had the same problem with the old rack, so we replaced the rack and pump.

I'm inclined to believe it's the steering gear or one of more of the u joints on the steering shaft. The problem is, this whole process is getting expensive. I'd like to get a definitive diagnosis and just replace the part that's broke.

Any suggestions?

 

RESOLVED!!!

I thought I would toss this out there for future reference.

We had lost one of the bolts for the steering shaft, so it was installed, but not tightened down. When I went to remove it so we could take it to a shop to get the correct replacement bolt, I realized that the previous mechanic had installed it wrong. The steering shaft, aka intermediary shaft, connects to the steering up above, and the pinion below, by means of two pinch bolts. Each shaft end has a split on one side. When the bolt is tightened, it pulls the split halves together and forms a clamp.

The bolt hole is threaded on only one side. You put the bolt through the side that is not threaded, and then as the bolt meets the threads on the other side, it tightens up. Anyway, the other mechanic had started the bolt on the threaded side. That meant that there was no clamping force on the upper connection! The steering wheel would turn a bit, but it was just rotating in the upper shaft connector, instead of actually rotating the entire shaft, because the bolt was installed wrong.

We installed the shaft correctly and voila, the damn thing steers! It still needs a trip to the alignment shop, but we are finally making progress.