When I got my truck, going down the road in a straight line was impossible with out sawing the steering wheel back and forth to keep it straight and in your lane. I had Les Schwab inspect the suspension and steering, and they replaced the track bar, shocks, front and rear brakes, a couple of u-joints, and the sway bar end links. That's all I could afford to have done at that time.


Yesterday I had all of the tie rods and tie rod ends replaced, as well as the steering stabilizer, they were beyond worn out. I also had them check the ball joints (168000 miles on the original ball joints), and they said they were ok. All of this has made a huge improvement in the steering, but the steering still wonders while going down the road, but not nearly as bad.


There is no play in my steering box, when I turn the steering wheel, but I know that doesn`t mean anything, but that's the only thing left that I can think of to replace to fix the wondering problem, now that all of the other steering parts have been replaced.


I have read that the Borgeson steering box is the best replacement steering box for our trucks. Is there a Borgeson steering box that is a direct bolt in hook up and go, or are there other parts, adaptors needed to make it work ?.


Any of you guys that have done this swap, any information is appreciated.

 

Steering sucks on these trucks as is, even in tip-top condition.

Number one rule dont trust the shop.

What size tires ya running? That can play a good part. What do you mean when you say wandering? Goes from one side of the road to other seemingly on its own? Thats usually a bad track bar. Get a buddy to turn your steering wheel side to side, and watch the ball joint on the track bar for any play. Check the ball joints your self, as well as the wheel hubs, procedures for checking play are in the downloadable FSM.

Ill be going with a redhead box myself, seem good reviews on them, and they are a brand new box IIRC, not a rebuilt one.

My 2 cents, sorry I havent my steering box yet hopefully someone with a borgeson and someone with a redhead will chime in

 

+1 on what Johnn123 mentioned regarding ball joints and wheel hubs. Hard to believe that you can get 168,000 out of the original ball joints and they still show as being good with all of the other parts that were worn out on your front suspension. Make sure your tires are in good shape and are properly inflated.

I have a Borgeson box installed on my truck and I'm very happy with it. I also installed the recommended Borgeson intermediate steering shaft, too, but I'm not sure its required. I also rebuilt my entire front suspension at 130,000 miles to fix worn out parts and eliminate death wobble that I experienced on a couple of occasions. Truck now handles better than a lot of cars on the road. Also, used a Solid Steel adjustable track bar with mounting bracket , Rancho 5000 shocks and a new steering stabilizer piston as part of the front suspension rebuild.