So, I'm having an issue with my truck when I'm up to highway speeds. It wanders all over the road and to keep it halfway straight you have to turn the wheel back and forth in a "sawing" motion. The wheel doesn't have play like many I've seen where you turn the steering wheel some without the wheels turning. On mine as soon as you move the steering wheel at all, the wheels turn, but it's just really loose feeling and easy to turn when the steering wheel is centered. Once you turn it enough to make a turn it starts feeling normal, but it's just hard to hold straight at center.

I originally got under the truck and it was obvious the tie rods were bad. Seeing this I put them on there which didn't change anything. So I started looking some more and saw play in my steering shaft u joint. I bought a Borgeson steering box (wasn't bad, but decided to upgrade when doing the other stuff) and a Borgeson steering shaft along with a new track bar. I put all of this on and got it aligned, and it's still not any better. It just wanders all over the road. It's like the steering needs to be tighter when the steering wheel is centered.

My next thought is the lower column bushing as it seems like about the only thing left. The Rock Sold Ram Fix videos say to test this to grab the spring and see if you can move it. I tried this and while it was hard to grab, it didn't seem to move at all. Nor does the truck make any noises when steering. Do you think this is still the issue and just not bad enough for it to really move?

Any other options? I feel like I've replaced about everything on this truck and it still handles horribly.

 

The Rock Solid only fixed an annoying clunk on mine. Have you tried rotating the tires or changing tire pressure to see if there's any difference? Mine used to have the same issue and it was the tires.

Some gear boxes are very loose too. When I replaced mine a while back the first one I got was very loose with poor centering, had to pull it back out and return it. I believe they are all reman now, can't get a new one anymore.

 

Maybe they f'd your alingment up. What's your caster look like?

You've already done everything I was gonna suggest.


I did the rock solid fix. Was a noticeable difference. I coudlnt move the spring either. You can't get a good grip on it anyway. For 50 bucks would do it again.

 

In all reality, steering should be tighter over center. if it isn't, I would have a chat with borgeson, and see what they have to say.

This isn't the first time I have seen this type of problem with the borgeson boxes either..... Don't think I have seen any complaints about the red-head though.

 

I have a mopar reman box. Fully rebuilt not just seals. A lil cheaper than the redhead.

 

It did this with the factory box as well, which seemed fine. I just replaced it to upgrade when doing the shaft. This makes me think it probably isn't the box since both of them did it, but I'm not 100% sure. As for the Red Head box, I looked into it, but found several complaints on other forums and guys were suggestion the Borgeson box. That's why I chose the Borgeson box, but after my experience I'd not but one again and I think I should have gone with the Red Head. The first box was bad and felt like it was binding badly in addition to leaking around the top cover. I sent it back once and they repaired it.

I've rotated the tires on it as well and that didn't help. These tires are Toyo MT's that are fairly new with probably 4-5k miles on them. I believe it also did it with the BFG's that were previously on it, but it's been soo long since I had them that I can't remember for sure.

As for the alignment, the printout looks good on it. This is also the second time it's been aligned while it's been doing this. Both by different shops. Neither time really helped. I agree that the steering should be tighter over center, but for some reason it's not. I don't really understand what could be doing it. I'm tempted to try the rock solid steering fix, but I'm just not sure if it could be the issue or not. For you guys that have done this, how hard was it to install? I watched a video online that made it look easy, but when I looked at my truck, you can't even really see that area. I'm thinking it's going to be a major pita.

I'm also tempted to try to tighten this steering box, although I did try that with the factory one and it never really helped. It either felt exactly like this, or it was too tight to where the wheel wouldn't spring back when turned.

 

It took me a leisurely hour from getting tools to test driving. It's not bad at all. The only hard part is some funky twisting you have to do.

 

I had terrible wandering issues with my truck and decided to rebuild the front end to fix it, as most of the parts were simply worn out and the truck had been a snow plow truck in a former life. I replaced the upper and lower ball joints, U-joints, upper and lower control arms with Spohn units that have poly bushings, track bar with a Solid steel adjustable unit and conversion bracket, Borgeson steering box and shaft, replaced the wheel bearings and sway bar links with poly bushings. Also installed 4 new 285-70-16 tires and got a good alignment at a shop that specializes in truck alignments. After all of that work, I still get a slight bit of wander, but nowhere near what it had been.

 

If you have "wandering" on the hwy, yet all the parts are tight and the tires move when you turn the wheel with no dead spot...

then it is not loose parts so stop throwing parts at it! It is simply the alignment. Most shops with their million dollar machines screw up alignment on these trucks. Simply get two tape measures and some chalk and do it old school. There should be zero to very little toe on them. (Mine was screwed up for years after two different shops until I did it myself. No wandering and no pulling. I have a slight dead spot in the wheel which I believe to be my stock box.)

Next, drop the air pressure on those big tires! Whenever I bump mine over 50 it starts getting a floating and loose sensation on the hwy as it finds all the ruts and crowns.

My truck ran on rails for 5 years and over 80k until the t-bar went bad and a shop tried to align it. Never been perfect since although my alignment helped significantly! Just my 2 cents.

 

I used some strinng for my alignment.