Just wanted t say hi and tell you guys (and gals) about a problem I had on my '00 Dakota.

About 9 months ago I experienced some hard steering, the power steering fluid looked bad so I changed it. I sucked the res dry put new in and repeated until the fluid looked good. I made an appointment at the shop to check out the problems and it seemed to go away. I figured the fluid must have been thin or bad and I figured it was OK. Shop could find no problems.

Then about 2 months ago I was at the boat launch and left to go home and the steering had tightened up again. This time I called the dealer and asked them to inspect and check everything, they recommended power flushing the fluid ($100 for everything) I tried it and it seemed better for a couple weeks and it got tighter than ever. They told me the pump was OK and if I continued to have problems I should replace the rack.

So I ordered a rebuilt rack from NAPA ($225 with discount) and replaced the steering rack and made an appointment to have the steering aligned. I test drove the truck and it steered easily, so I parked it for 4 days to await the appointment for alginment. When I got in it to drive down to the shop the steering was hard again! I wrote the shop a note about everything I had done and waited to see what happened.

They called me and told me that the steering shaft couplers (little u-joints) were bad. When I worked them they loosened up and when they sat for a few days they seized up. It cost me $385 for the labor and parts (lower shaft) for this.

I am just throwing this out there in case others are experiencing the same thing. I thought for sure it was the rack but I was wrong (and paid for something I didn't need on the advice of my dodge dealer). I don't mind throwing some $$ into this truck, I bought in new and it has been paid off for a couple of years now, just don't like wasting it.

Later,
Gary

 

Thank you for posting this. I was just getting ready to replace the ps pump when I found your thread. I went out and soaked the shaft and u-joints with oil and 5 minutes later the steering problem went away. Now I'll only have to replace the shaft!

 

Yay for necrophilia and the search function! This is why I love this site lol

 

This is a known problem, idk why it's not in the FAQ. I've oiled mine a few times.

 

if the knuckles freeze up why do you also have to replace the loser shaft? ahve the same thing and it comes and goes and now here all the time.

dealer said knuckles are all greased up and look good so they sent me know to say lets wait till something shows sign of a problem but man..its like steering a ship in a storm!

what happens to the lower shaft to warrant replacement? or is it part of the knuckle assembly? I gotta get my hands on a book or diagram.....

thanks

 

so it's been a while since someone posted on this thread. I just replaced the lower intermediate shaft (this is what you guys were talking about) and my problem is gone. about 90 bucks on ebay. there are four knuckes you need to worry about. 2 u joints basically. three of mine were fine and the fourth one I could barely move. truck steers like a dream. make sure to take the drivers side front tire off and have the front supported by jack stands. it wasn't fun taking the bolts out as they were pretty seized. mine is a 2004 so 8 years of rust build up. I took a dremel and cleaned the part of the bolt sticking out to get rid of that build up and it went a lot easier. they are difficult to get to so just be patient. the shaft compresses to be removed. just make sure one you get that shaft off, to not move anything until you get the new shaft back on. it helps a lot to have someone hold the steering wheel while you loosen and tighten the bolts. when I took mine off I just used a vice grip on the shaft but had my dad hold the wheel so I didn't have to mar up the new shaft. hope this helps!

 

just to clearify, are we talking about the steering shaft from the steering wheel to the rack?

 

there are two shafts. the lower one is the one that went bad and needed replacing.

 

I know that this is an old(er) thread but as others have said, the search function is priceless.

My 2000 Durango 4x4 sat abandoned for almost a year before I bought it. My steering isn't exactly "hard" but I can feel slight resistance when I get the wheel 3/4 of the way around.

At first I thought it might have been low on fluid so I topped it off and added a little extra in case there was a void further down the line or something. It steered a little better but overall it didn't really do much. So then I figured that my tire pressure was low.

Having 10 PSI in the front and 20 in the back when you have the 31x10's isn't exactly a good idea so once I got the pressure up, it drove much better.. but still I had stiffness in the wheel.

So then I started thinking through all of the possibilities and the shaft did cross my mind... but I was still calculating the costs of things like tierod ends, bushings, ball joints, etc. I am going to oil the shaft today to see if that fixes it.

 

If that's the problem, it will only be a temporary fix. Definitely diagnoses the
Problem though.