ptm600

O.K., I just replaced upper and lower ball joints with spicers, axle joints with Precisions, and replaced outer tie rod ends with spicers. my steering felt tight before I did any of this. I had the front end aligned at a reputable shop. Checked everything out yesterday, and everything is tight. The play seems to be in my steering gear box. Does anyone have any suggestions. I hate to replace it, but If that's the only thing that can be done to get tight steering back, I may go that route. Oh yeh, and my truck only has 42,000 miles. Thank-you for any help.

Paul

Badgerman06

Look up DSS (dodge steering stabilizer) it is a unit that bolts up to support the shaft on the steering box to stop the unwanted flex. There are a couple of companies that make it and it seams that everybody that puts one on has great reviews about them.

JP-4.5

I added a DSS to my truck. It definately helped but did not eliminate the wandering. I have 19.5 tire/rims with highway tread and would wander quite easily following cracks and seams in the road. The brace helped that problem the most. I was very happy with the brace and it is an easy item to install with just basic tools.

ataboy9026

I did a pretty detailed write up on adjusting steering box about a year and a half ago. I will try to find it or do a search yourself. Its not hard at all and only takes about 10 - 15 minutes.

ataboy9026

link https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...light=steering

torquefan

Yep I agree with just doing a quick sector adjustment on the box. That's usually all it takes. Another thing to consider is that the steering may not actually be loose and sloppy. It may just be harder to steer because the new ball joints are too tight and not letting the steering return to center by itself. It's a pretty common thing, can be aggravated by not following the torquing procedure properly, and usually gets better as the ball joints loosen up.

ptm600

Thank-you, I'll give it a try. I always appreciate the help recieved on here. Didn't really want to replace the box.

cLAYH

Check the steering shaft. On my '03 there is a roll pin that holds the upper half and lower shafts together. The hole had wallowed out creating a lot of slop in the steering shaft.

I drilled out both shafts and replaced the roll pin with a GR8 bolt and locknut.

torquefan

cLAYH, that's a good solid repair that will last forever, just don't forget that this roll pin was meant to shear off in an accident to allow the column to collapse and protect the driver. It would be safest to replace the whole shaft to retain this safety feature.

cLAYH

Actually its not meant to shear off in an accident. The collapisble part is lower down. Have you had a 3rd gen steering shaft apart?

Thee upper shaft has a square male end, the lower shaft has a female end with a rubber insert, the rollpin sits solidly in metal in the upper portion but for the lower its "sleeved" in rubber. The rubber wallows out on the lower end as does the hole in the steel which gives you all the slop. My guess is the rubber was supposed to act as a dampner to prevent vibes from the steering box from travelling up to the steering wheel. I have not noticed any such vibes.

torquefan

Sorry, I was thinking of a 2nd gen shaft. They caused a lot of problems with noise in that slip joint, but you couldn't bolt it together for safety reasons.

bradler

try to adjust the gear box first but if the sector shaft is wagging back and forth then its best to replace the box. the Dss is great but its a band-aid fix if there is that much play in the sector shaft. if you do need a new gear box red head steering gears is great, they rebuild them better the stock, then put a dss on and it will last a long time. if you feel it is a loss of return to center in the steering could be bj's like torque fan said. you could check that easily by marking the location on the adjustment collar on the inner draglink to pitman arm, and unscrewing it all the way, then with front end of the ground push/pull on the linkage by hand to see if bj's are rotating smooth.

SmokenRam

I am in same boat you are. Had all ball joints replaced, and it wanders all over road. mainly if you are on interestate running 70mph, you can keep it in straight line. Place told me same thing, ball joints are tight now, makes it stick alittle. 40k later it stills drives bad. going to box next

BLACKBEAR

You might need a steering shaft! Borgeson makes a heavy duty one for the dodge go to www.genosgarage.com or call 1.800.775.1715 they can help you out.Ask them to send you there parts book.they also have a steering box stabilizer. that is why you should call and talk to some for help==Good luck

cLAYH

I strongly advise against the Borgsen shaft. I bought one, got it home and it was wrong, was for a 2nd gen truck, Borgeson screwed up and told their retailers a 2nd gen shaft would fit a 3rd gen truck all the way up to 2006. I even checked their website and it was wrong on the website.

My local distributor had to call them direct to figure out what was going on and get the part number. New shafts for 3rd gen trucks were 6 weeks out so I waited. The new shaft came in and I went to install it, correct ends but I wasn't impressed with the cheesy lock nuts to hold the yokes onto the shafts. Also the directions said I had to file off a flat spot on the input shaft for the box. I took the old shaft out and compared it to the Borgeson shaft to make sure it was right. Seemed long, so before I messed with my steering box I installed the shaft onto the upper end and found it was about 6" too long! Even totally collapsed. There was NO way I could get the bottom end on.

At this time I had my stock shaft out and could see where the slop was. Did the mod described above and took the @#$@# Borgeson shaft back for the last time and got my money back.

Don't bother with a Borgeson shaft. After seeing what a piece of junk it was I was relieved that I could put my stock shaft back on and not have to use it.

After I returned it I read a thread on here where a guy was driving a rough washboard road and his Borgeson shaft fell right off and he lost steering! If you search for it you'll find it.