When I first got this pickup the ball joints where shot, had all of them replaced, then steering gear went out, had a lot of play in it, had a used steering gear that was good condition, before I put it on I rotated the arm back and forth and counted the turns to make sure it would be centered when I put it on the pickup so it would turn the equal distance left and right, had to turn the steering wheel to line up the gear, steering wheel was then around 3 o clock position, so about a 1/4 turn off, can't just pull the steering wheel and adjust that way because on of the splines is bigger, or there was a gap between two, cant remember for sure, the steering wheel will only go on one way, so I had it aligned cause it was idea to do seeing that the ballpoints were just replaced to, once it was done the steering wheel was better but it is now in the I'd say 10-12 position, slightly to the left, I'd like to know how to solve this problem, weather I should modify the splines to adjust the steering wheel or by adjusting the front end, don't know why dodge made the steering wheel like this, the 4wd is the ones where you can put them on either way from the pickups I've took the steering wheels off of, advice would be appreciated, thanks.

 

Mine is really off now but before it was way off mine was slightly off aswell. I think mine was because somewhere is mine linkage or possibly the steering box was worn, even though my steering box was new or rebuilt rather.

Could prolly just pull the steering wheel and rotate it slightly but Im not sure

 

I would advise against modifying the splines on the steering shaft. Take it back to where it was aligned and make them straighten the steering wheel. I do alignments all day, and its a simple adjustment to make.

 

My coupler from the steering shaft that slides on the steering gear has some play, but I'm afraid I can't take off the steering wheel and readjust that way cause one of the splines is bigger than the others and it will only go on that one way unfortunately,
I forgot to mention in the original post that after they aligned it the steering would not turn near as sharp left as its supposed to and if you turn it too far right you can hear it tweak the metal, so some how they must have messed with that to try and get the wheel right,
I apologize I forgot to mention this in the first post, it's one of the two problems I wanted to solve,
but I'd like to know if maybe CO-OP may have messed it up or if the steering gear isn't quite right and it'll never be perfect with this certain gear I have, I'd like to know what happened and what they did to do this and how to make it right, once again I apologize for not posting this in the original post, thanks.

 

if i had to guess i would think your problem is with the steering box and the pitman arm. i would guess you used the steering box and pitman arm off another truck which could be set up differently then your old steering box. i think the only way to fix it would be to remove the pitman arm, straighten the steering wheel and put the pitman arm back on or try adjusting the tie rod but i think adjusting the tie rods is more so for fine tuning the steering. also this may be what is preventing you from turning as sharp one way as you can the other.

i would not mess with the steering wheel. i think that keyway in the steering wheel is there for a good reason

 

Ok, I understand what your saying, does the bottom of the steering gear where the pitman arm attaches to it have equal size splines so it can go on different ways to adjust it, or will it just go on one way like the steering wheel? I'm assuming it does from what your saying but I'd like to make sure, i can remember where i went wrong now, i checked the number of turns from each steering box, how it bolted, etc, but what i didnt check is where the part of the steering shaft slides in, how it was turned more and would make it off, Like I said in the first post a couple years back I had the ballpoints and tie rod all replaced and what im wandering is is I should have the tie rod all adjusted the way it was before when it was installed or if it doesn't really matter, because the way CO-OP moved the steering wheel is adjust the tie rod, or tie rod ends, I hope I explained my questions good enough to be understood, I'm not to familiar with tie rod adjust ments and how the to do those kinds of things, hopefully by doing this ill be able to get a better grasp on alignments, wish it was as simple as a 4wd though, these hopefully are the past questions I have on this subject, thanks for all your help.

 

If it wont turn near as far to the left, the left tie rod is too long and the right one is too short. If you turn the tie rod adjusters so as to lengthen the right side, and shorten the left side, you're in essence moving "dead center" of the total amount of lock to lock turns to the right. If you do them both in equal increments, right side shorter, and left side longer, your total toe setting shouldn't change, but you will straighten your steering wheel, and get your turning radius back.

 

Ok, thanks for all your guys help, as soon as the weather warms up and the snow is gone, hopefully I can get it done.