92 Dodge RAM 250

[PJgal]

This van has 150K miles. The engine sounds good, no leaks that I can see, but the steering is not very tight...a great deal of play in the steering wheel, and to me, it feels a little "drifty" when I drive it. I didn't want to take it over about 45, but I am a very timid old lady driver.

What is this? Can it be remedied? I can probably get it cheap enough to justify a repair if it isn't a fatal flaw...

PJ

 

[SternWake]

There can be numerous reasons for wandering steering.

-Steering coupler worn. 25 dollars in parts and 2 hours labor.
-Steering gear worn, can be adjusted tighter but can be worn past adjustable. 165$ for remanufactured. 3 hours labor
-Ball joints( 4) each 25 to 45 dollars. labor can be intensive with these as the uppers are threaded and need special tool and tremendous torque.

Idler arms. 2. 15 to 85$ a piece. relatively little labor

Tie rod ends(4) 12 to 35$ a piece. Need to have alignment performed after.

Wheel bearings. If these are the cause of slop then new rotors should be installed too for about 120$ in parts

Drag link, 65 to 100$ and not much labor.

Most likely it is the steering coupler. These can be rebuilt but if worn excessively it will improve, but still be sloppy.

I removed mine and used a U joint in place of the stock cup style coupler.

In 93 or 94 dodge switched to a different steering gear, and used a U joint instead of the horribly designed steering coupler.

If the steering gear is worn beyond adjustment, and they become dangerous if overtightened, only remanufactured units are available, and most of these are still worn, but have new seals in them.

My replacement gear has more slop than the leaky one I removed.

RedHead Steering gears improves the design and sells quality reman'd gears, but they cost 3 to 4 times as much.

FirmFeel is another company who does steering gear rebuilds to tighter tolerances, not sure of their prices.

Product prices and labor times are rough estimates. One can buy service grade suspension components for 1/3 the price of 'professional grade' and sometimes one pays for the professional grade and gets service grade parts in a pro grade box.

Autoparts today are mostly junk designed to insipre confidence with good marketing, and designed to fail shortly after warranty period.

I've got a 3 year old new Wagner( A known and respected brakes parts manufacturer) brake master cylinder with about 6k miles on it, that is leaking.

Junk.

 

[PJgal]

Ahh, Sternwake, no free lunch, I see...Well, I know the answer is to have someone take a look, and I will try to do that monday. Thanks for the rundown.

PJ

 

[66788]

I'm guessing steering coupler. If it's the old style like mine, there is a rebuild kit available from Dorman for $8.00 but it's the internal parts only, and most of the wear will be in the coupler housing itself. I had to scour wrecking yards to find a car with the same coupler and then remove it myself in order to have something worthwhile to rebuild. There are NO new parts for this available at any cost.

 

[SternWake]

The worn coupler is why i went with the u joint upgrade.

You can buy new ball joints suspension bushings tie rod ends idler arms no problem. The issue is buying quality. Raybestos pro grade is probably the best available. Moog is not what they once were. But some older made in usa stock might still be available.

Tightening the steering gear is pretty simple. But is not a cure all. And over tightening can be dangerous

 

[66788]

The danger with adjusting the steering gear is that most of the wear on the gear takes place while the vehicle is driving straight ahead. If the gear is adjusted to take out the slack of this wear pattern, it will be too tight on either end (left and right turns) and bind, causing a dangerous condition. Steering boxes are expensive and the labor is not cheap either.

There is no U Joint upgrade made for the 1989 Dodge van, just the Chrysler steering coupler that came with the van. Too bad because that upgrade solves the problem readily.

 

[SternWake]

Original coupler after scrubbing the base clean.

The dust boot was gone on mine when I got it, and I figured trying to rebuild it with the dorman kit was a waste of time.

Both Flaming river and Borgeson make a U joint with a DD input on one side and a 5/8 36 spline adapter on the other side that fits the steering gear on many Chryslers upto about 1993. I used Flaming River, cant remember the part number off the top of my head. Pretty sure 5/8 and 36 splines is correct though but double check. Bought it through Summitt for about 75$ in 2009. The DD shaft was another 25$.

I bought a 16 inch length of 3/4 inch DD steering shaft which mates nicely with the steering column.


Since I cut the original steering shaft, I did not have to unbolt and lift the steering column from the floor. I was able to slide shortened new DD shaft into steering column, drop in 160$ reman'd POS Apsco gear from autozone and mate U joint to shaft and gear pretty easily.

I did have to drill some detents for the set screws on the steering shaft and splined input shaft on replacement steering gear

I'd also flushed the power steering pump and then used a cheap fuel filter in a closed circuit to further flush the pump of debris.

I used new hydraulic hoses and put an inline magnetic filter on the return hose.

The original coupler allows for some frame flex between the steering gear and steering column. A little telescoping action if you will. This coupler was used in many other vehicles where there is much more distance between steering column and steering gear and this telescoping action is absolutely necessary

I did not bolt the DD shaft into the steering column as chrysler had done but slid it deeper into the column than Chrysler did and it can telescope. I've seen no evidence, in the ensuing 5 years since I did this non existent upgrade, that there has been any telescoping between column and gear. It was a concern and I smeared grease over the area to see if it does indeed telescope. It does not.

The U joint is no longer nice and shiny, but there is absolutely no slop in this portion of the steering.

My issue is the reman'd Apsco steering gear is an absolute POS which should never have passed inspection with all the slop/ wear. All my steering slop resides within this gear, as I've also replaced every wearable suspension and steering component.

Next time I've got 550$ burning a hole in my wallet, I'm getting a redhead steering gear. I'll have to eat the core charge as my drilled set screw detent nullifies it as a core charge, but shipping something so heavy upto Washington state would cost nearly as much as the core charge anyway.

Many people who rebuild the original coupler drill a hole in the base of it and add a grease zerk to it to flush out wear particles and extend life.

 

[66788]

Excellent response SternWake. I like your style.

You do the kind of work I like to do. No hurrying, thinking outside the box, and excellent craftsmanship.

You can work on my van anytime!

 

[user 423]

This van has 150K miles.
PJ

This a standard van and not a Class B? Or is it possible there is extra weight in the back? That could cause some steering problems as well.

 

[sassypickins]

Sternwake, +1,000,000