Hello back again. Still tinkering with my 98 Dakota 4x4. Anyway as in my previous posts I have replaced ball joints, tie rods, idler and pitman arms. Also replaced steering box. I needed a few weeks "recovery" time before I replaced all 4 tires. Well finally I did all 4 tires and told them to set it up as I did a lot of replacing under there. (When I first replaced all this I did have it set up using the old tires as I knew I was going to do it again and I also hadn't did the box yet) Well I got it back and couldn't keep it in a straight line and dove into turns. Anyway I brought it back and he drove it and told me the new steering box is no good. Not returning to center. OK , In the meantime I had to go to work (right down the street). One day I was walking towards truck straight on which I don't normally have the opportunity to do and I can see the drivers wheel is leaning out at the top. HMM. I took it back to another guy who I knew (and trusted better) and showed him and he agreed he could see it with the naked eye so I dropped it off a few days later. When I went to pick it up he said "you're not driving that thing that way- are you? YOU GOTTA GET THAT BOX OFF THAT TRUCK. I almost hit a tree!! Its not returning to center because it doesn't know where center is" Well to shorten story I just bolted a new box on (under warranty). It is much straighter down the road but still wants to "dive" into a turn. Hard to tell if returning to center normal. It is not like I turn hard and it stays there, it just sometimes doesn't go "perfectly" straight. He isn't there until Monday but I know the alignment isn't right and am thinking that may be the last piece of the puzzle. When I first bolted this thing on and got it running there seemed to be a "catch" when turning right from center which all but went away after a short trip. Is this normal?

 

Why did you replace the steering gear in the fis=rst place? There is an adjustment to take out excess play in the gear. Loosen the lock nut on the to of the gear, use a wide blade screw driver to tighten the adj. screw-re-tighten the lock nut. Should be done with the tires off the ground and an assistant moving the steering wheel to check the progress of removing the play. (This is the condenced version, real instructions are in my clymer's book)

 

Original was leaking badly out of the input shaft. I could grab shaft with truck running,pull up and down and fluid would pour out of input seal. Box was also pretty loose.

 

Well I finally made it back to my buddy and he got it on the alignment rack. He said originally there "wasn't a green light on the board" He had a printout but couldn't find it right away and they were busy so I didn't press it. I did get the new one. It was totally,totally, totally screwed up. He said the driver's side tire,although way out on camber, wasn't really causing all my problems although naturally didn't help. The passenger side was also way off on caster, which was my "diving into a right turn" problem. Anyway everything is in spec and feels like a whole different truck!! He told my not to touch anything, just leave it alone. I told him I wasn't even going to put air in the tires unless absolutely necessary. He said he should glue those on also!!!!