Need insight on wierd problem

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64cudaV8

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I went to get some gas the other day and made a hard left turn. When I went back straight the wheel was off center. I assumed something slipped. I realigned the front end today and checked everything to make sure nothing was loose. Took it for a spin made a hard turn and same thing. However I made a hard turn the opposite direction and the wheel was straight again. 8-[ What the hell s going on? Its a new steering box in it. manual steering. All suspension parts are new.
 
Would that suddenly happen? Or gradually? I don't see anything loose.
 
Coupler has new guts. I thought it was that at first as well. I am thinking its the manual gearbox that's causing my issues. Its tight and not loose.
 
Is the pitman and idler arm new too? Suspension all stock as in no altered aftermarket parts, heim joints, etc?

One thing I have ran into is wallowed out parts, not necessarily on Mopars but anything is possible.
 
Yeah idler pitman, etc.. are all new. All stock replacements. The front end was totally rebuilt including the steering. It has me stumped. The steering box is what I keep coming back to.
 
I had a Duster that would do that. Replaced the ball joints and idler arm bushings
 
The ball joint are new. What's the chance of them going bad with very few miles on them?
 
Was the alignment out of adjustment? If not I have just a couple of thoughts, the shoes in the steering coupler not installed correctly or the splines on the steering wheel bad. I would center up the steering wheel and put index marks on the box input shaft and steering coupler at same point, then the steering shaft to coupler and take it out get it to duplicate the problem then verify alignment marks to see what's moved.
 
how about the tie rod adjusters, are they so loose that they pulled out a few threads?
 
Borrow a Go-Pro camera, mount on the under carriage, go for a drive, view the video. Rotate camera angle as needed.
 
64cudaV8 said:
The ball joint are new. What's the chance of them going bad with very few miles on them?
Click to expand...

I've had brand new Moog ball joints go bad in a few hundred miles and fall apart in my hands brand new out of the box, so you have to check them. This will also result in the symptom you are describing.

Jack the front end up and using a long pry bar, lift up on the tire from below. A 2x4 used as a fulcrum to lift the tire up with the pry bar will tell you if they are bad. There will be a noticable freeplay in the ball joint. It should hardly have any freeplay if they are new. There is a spec for the amount of freeplay, but I don't have it handy.

You will need to put a wrench on all the hardware of the front suspension to verify if its actually tight. You can't tell by looking at it. I've had upper control arm bushings loosen up in a few days.
 
Make sure the upper control arm bushings didn't shift a little. They need to be tighter than some people think.... Also make sure a strut rod bushing didn't go away.... The only other thing that I can think of which is kinda scary is a structural integrity issue with the subframe.
 
Thanks for all the insight guys. I will jack her up this weekend and check all again and make sure its all secure. I have never had a car do this.
 
Did the inside of the coupler have any grooves in it? They do get wear grooves in them sometimes. It sounds like the box or the coupler to me by the symptoms. How is the box mounting bracket? Solid? Did your box come with a warranty? I assume it didn't do this before the box change? Can you get the car up in the air? I would see if there is any movement in the pitman or idler arm at the k frame mounts,up,down side to side.
 
No the coupler looked good inside. I put a crow bar on the steering box and it doesn't budge. Didn't check the idler arm. The pitman are is solid. No splines are damaged. Once it gets to the end of the lock it locks. No movement. Same both sides. The old box had way too much play in it. was unsafe. The is a new one I put in in august and it does have a warranty. I called them today and they asked if I turned the adjustment screw. I told them I had not. They said sometimes it might get a air bubble in them and have seen them do this before. But usually it just locks on one side or the other. I plan on doing that this weekend. If it doesn't fix my issue it will be warrantied.
 
All this talk and not one mention of the LCA bushing, NOTORIOUS for being an issue because it's so deep in there nobody wants to deal with it...
 
Did you change the UCA adjusting bolts and use the new style bolt that has the flatted area completely down the length of the bolt instead of the OE bolts that are fully round and just flatted at the end?? Those new bolts are impossible to tighten to my satisfaction, and my car had a steering shift in the front end which would "bind" when I was pushing it around in the garage! It was impossible to align until I put the OE style bolts in, not a problem since!! Just thinking out loud here!!
 
Yes I have the new style with the flat area. All the bushings were replaced. So I know they are there..
 
I have found that the aftermarket UCA bolts do not have quite enough threads on them. So even tho you torque the nuts up, you are not actually squeezing everything together.What you are experiencing is exactly what I did,many years ago. The cure was 1/8 Hardened washers. I used headbolt washers I think.
 
Put a small witness mark on everthing, steering coupler to shaft coming out of the box. Upper control arm bushings / eccentric bolts. Those two areas would be my first thoughts. Mark them and drive it / review and repeat as needed until you find it
 
An air bubble in a manual box? That's a new one since they are packed with grease and there is always air inside since it's hard to pack one fully without some being in it.
 
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