My '07 with 71,000 miles has very little steering feel over center, from about half-past 11 to half-past 12. It feels overboosted, loose, numb, any one of those words that describe "I wiggle the wheel left to right and almost nothing happens".

Once I'm even 1/8 turn in, the steering feels better, with decent feedback and smooth, if overboosted, resistance.

The pump doesn't groan, even on a cool morning turning the wheels without rolling. The rack may have a slooow leak, or it may just be covered with engine oil. I have quality greasable outer tie rod ends, ball joints and anti-sway parts. I hit the steering shaft u-joint with spray lithium grease to preserve it. My tires have plenty of tread and are wearing evenly. The Monroe shocks might have another 5-10K in them before they are due.

Quickly sawing the wheel left to right in a parking lot (barely 1/8 turn each way), creates a very muffled thunk as the wheel crosses 12:00. More of a feeling than a sound. It feels like slack is being taken up. So...something is worn out.

Splines between shaft and rack?
The actual rack and pinion gear mesh?
Inner tie rod ends?
Bad alignment (tire wear does not support this)?

The truck is also as susceptible to steering wheel motion over bumps/whoops as it's ever been. The system just has no stiffness or resistance in it, especially compared to my '05 Ranger at work.

My gut instinct says the inner tie rods are shot. Moog makes them - but should the rack be serviced or just replaced?

Can anyone shed some light on this? Muchas gracias.

 

I would start with the simple items like tie rod ends, ball joints, and steering intermediate shaft.

If you find none of those are loose or failing, you are gonna want to start checking the Rack and Pinion. This sounds similar to what I went through. Nothing worn, then after a year I checked the rack pressure using the service manual specs and found that the rack was not holding pressure. Something with the internals was shot.

 

The only factory front end parts left are the intermediate shaft and the rack. I'll get into it this weekend with a helper and see if we can figure out where the play is.

 

Back when mine was doing something similar couple years ago I took it to the dealer, there was a loose bolt in the shaft to u-joint connection. Hope I'm remembering correctly since it was just explained to me, no documentation on the bill.

 

I know they switched to a larger intermediate shaft called R2 or V2, not sure when that switch happened. The inermediate shaft is known for u-joint and rag joint failure. It a simple 2 bolt swap, just make sure to PB blast the snot out of the bolts days in advance. You do not have to worry about the steering being off after the swap due to a notch in the output shafts of the steering column and rack. It can only go on one way.

I ended up borowing a pressure tester and checking the rack pressure to the manual specs. My symptoms were no steering control at any speeds. Wheels seam to want to wonder all over the place even with the steering wheel held straight. Hit a small bump the truck would take off in a unexplainable direction. driving at low speeds over bumps would send the steering wheel flying in different directions with the truck going straight. With the truck in park and I pushed down on one side of the front end the steering wheel would turn back and forth. After the new rack no issues, and steering wheel would not turn back and forth when I pushed down on one side of the front end.

Here is a link to the thread I started about it.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...-new-rack.html

 

Very helpful so far, guys. Eimer, I have read that thread several times, and luckily I am nowhere near that bad.

I think my '07 has an improved intermediate shaft. My mechanic said it was looking rough, but I have never had a problem with steering resistance as I turn lock to lock. As I read the TSB on 05 and 06 models, that was the primary complaint.

I'm going to give her a good once-over and do some PM this weekend, see if I can't get to the bottom of this.

Is it safe to remove the steering rack boot and slide it out of the way to see the inner tie rod end?

 

No reason why it wouldn't be safe. The band clamps are a pain to remove, and I would just cut them off and buy some new tube clamps.

They sell the inner tie-road assembly separately.

Here is another link with pics. Would not be hard at all to change the inner rods. Just need an alignment afterwords.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...imensions.html