Basically when I turn the steering wheel all the way to one side it makes a scary clunk and sounds almost like something just snapped off. Anyone know what it is?

 

Do you have a leveling kit ontop of your fabtech lift? If so, then your springs might be contacting the frame,
Or you could be experiencing snap steer. when you turn the wheel, the natural pivot allows say 90% natural movement/motion and then when you try to turn the wheel to 100% lock, you get to ~95% and at that point your actually forcing the wheel past the point of normalcy and the steering snaps the rest of the way due to the excessive presure. The clunk/noise would be from your spindles contacting the bump stops on the lower control arm.

 

No leveling kit but I think its the second thing you said because its normal for most of the turn but if I try to give it that little extra thats when the snap noise occurs. It's loud and noticeable too. Nothings actually broken though it just sounds like it is.

 

Does it sound like a popping noise? Like the spring gets caught on something and pulls it till it pops?

I have heard that sound before on my wifes car after it had been repaired from a front end collision. If you turned the steering wheel all the way it would make a loud popping noise as if something broke. What it turned out to be was, and I'm no mechanic when it comes to this stuff, but something in the shock/strut was not tightened down all the way and the spring was getting contact somewhere when the wheel turned. After the wheel was turned straight it would release pressure and the spring would pop.

Again I am no mechanic but I would have someone check it out. We took my wifes car back to the dealership that did the repair and they said it would have been bad to keep going with it the way it was. Not sure if this was any help but I would get it checked out.

 

That sounds pretty much exactly like what's happening. I might take it to a shop unless anyone knows of a way that I can do it myself.

 

If you have someone you really really trust, have them turn the steering wheel while you look underneath the truck. You should be able to better pin point the location of the sound and hopefully be able to see what's causing it. Also, I don't know how much this would help, or matter, but securely raise the front end with jack stands, make sure both the front tires have plenty of clearance off the ground and do the same steering test to see if the culprit item still binds up when the weight is off the front suspension. If you do that part tho, please make sure the wheels are totally off the ground, I took a short cut when I was flushing my PS fluid and jacked the front end most of the way up, after 2 turns on the wheel I heard a few clunks, got out and realized my tires shifted my truck to the side just a bit and totally F-ed up my floor jack, bent it all out of shape. I had enough clearance when I jacked it up, but since my driveway is a slight incline, as the tires turned to the side, they made contact with the concrete and started pushing the truck.

 

I don't have access to those kinds of jackstands up here at school. Would I be safe taking it to a shop and having them inspect it without paying too much out of pocket?

 

Finding good and honest shops are hard to do, best thing is to ask around and see who likes what shops. Honestly I don't know if you'd have to jack the front end up (I'm not sure what that would prove, I was thinking maybe it would indicate if it was related to the suspension [don't feel bad, I'm still confused and it was my idea]) But I think it would still be good if you can watch under the truck while someone turns the wheels when it's on the ground, or maybe you can set a camera under the truck and point it at the wheels if you have to do that alone.

A shop to take a quick look at your steering components just to see what is binding would be a very quick task and they should tell you a price before hand, and for that I don't know if I'd pay more than $20 just for a quick "look-see", that is if the shop isn't too busy. I'm thinking a reputable, independent shop would be your best bet, chain stores don't seem to really care about every potential customer because they have a lot of customers. A small shop would be more willing to cut you a deal on something simple to earn your business for the future.
Last time I was at PepBoys for my alignment, a lady came in and complained about this bad burning smell a few days after they changed her oil. They put her car up on the rack and pulled out a half melted plastic bag. And then they made a big deal to her how they spoke to the manager and convinced him to waive the $45 shop fee, or whatever it is. But the way they did it was so phony and fake it pissed me off. they spent less than 5 minutes with her car, why would they have even thought about trying to charge anything. Had that situation happened at my local shop they would have said they found the plastic bag and if you still have a bad odor come on back, they wouldn't even mention anything about charging a shop fee.

 

Hi 08HEMI1500, the problem you're describing is almost certainly a worn out steering box. The steering boxes in these trucks are notoriously bad for getting sloppy inside. I had the same problem 2 years ago in early 09. My truck is an 06 2500 4WD Cummins and I replaced absolutely every single part on the front end of the truck before realizing that it was the Steering Box. I started with the ball joints as they were a little loose but certainly didn't seem loose enough to merit being changed but regardless, I went ahead and changed them anyway. After an unsuccessful attempt at the joints, I also changed out the tie rod ends as I had the infamous death wobble anyway and knew they needed to be changed which immediately cured that problem. I replaced the U-Joints with spicer joints as well which did absolutely nothing other than give me peace of mind that my U-Joints are now new and tough as nails. I replaced one wheel bearing because that was worn out and after all this, the clunk still remained so one day, I had my brother turn the steering wheel to the sweet spot that would cause the clunk and I thought maybe it was the universal joint on the steering shaft but upon closer inspection, I noticed that the sector shaft that the pitman arm attaches to, had side to side play instead of just rotating in the circular direction which is what it's supposed to do. I bought a BD Diesel Steering Shaft stabilizer and tightened down the sector shaft bolt and jam nut on top of the steering box and WALLA, my problem went away for a while. A long story short, even though I tightened up the shaft bolt and installed the BD Diesel Sector shaft isolator, the worm gear inside the steering box had just worn so badly that I replaced the whole box with a new unit from Advance Auto Parts $200.99 and have not had a single problem with it. Your problem is almost certainly the steering box based on your description. I hope this helps you and if I can be of any other assistance, please email me to question or critique. L6POWER

 

Damn it costs that much to replace? Is it a DIY job or will a shop have to do that? And can I get away with just not turning full lock for now? It doesn't to be affecting anything at the moment.