Steering is darting is this the likely culprit?

[joshua]

Get your fatest girlfriend to jump on the front bumper and watch the steering wheel and see if it moves.

Then go up on to the Top hole on the axle track bar mount and have her jump on the bumper again and see if the steering wheel moves.

That's how I know I got the bump steer gone.

Then tighten all steering box bolts good and have someone wiggle the steering wheel and look for frame or axle track bar mount flex and tie rod movement. Jack the front axle in the air and check wheel bearing and ball joint slack.

Then go get alignment numbers and find out if you need more caster or camber, get a print out.

Will do. Ya I did another test. I’m going with darting. After 50 when making small corrections it’s like the all the wait of the bodie is shifting. At 60 it feels like I’m going over a bunch of tiny bumps. Not sure if that’s steering related or not. I have a brand new tom woods drive shaft so probably going to rule that for now. But I’m definitely wondering if it’s a toe out problem. I’m going to attempt to measure tonight.

 

[joshua]

That’s probably not good

 

[Apogee]

That could be part of the issue, if not all of it. Are the other SRE's showing significant wear as well? I only ask since I'm assuming they all have the same miles on them, but any amount of cumulative play/slack in the steering system could be leading to the symptoms you've described.

 

[joshua]

That could be part of the issue, if not all of it. Are the other SRE's showing significant wear as well? I only ask since I'm assuming they all have the same miles on them, but any amount of cumulative play/slack in the steering system could be leading to the symptoms you've described.

The rest are very tight. I’m almost wondering if I did something wrong here.

 

[joshua]

Ya, I’m thinking this is the problem. Im pretty sure it wasn’t like that a when I put it together, I only have like 40 miles on the bronco, but not a 100 percent it wasn’t that way. And it was a used part.

 

[.94 OR]

Maybe I'm seeing something, but there appears to be a slight amount of movement looking at the upper spacer under the bolt head and the rim. Not sure where that would come from.

 

[joshua]

Maybe I'm seeing something, but there appears to be a slight amount of movement looking at the upper spacer under the bolt head and the rim. Not sure where that would come from.

I was having someone jerk the wheel back and forth, maybe that’s it.

 

[SLOWnEASY]

That's a lot of movement for any link on a steering component.

 

[DirtDonk]

Absolutely! That lower rod end on the drag link is completely worn out. It may, or may not be the sole source of your issue. But it is NOT helping!

 

[joshua]

Well the tie rod end eliminated the clunk in my steering, but didn’t improve things.

Here is what I think the caster is. Plus 4 degrees. I leveled the front axle best I could, as mi floor basically is a giant funnel to the drain.

 

[Oldtimer]

You say your tires are at 35 psi (post #11).
Lower to 28 psi, and go for a drive.

 

[joshua]

You say your tires are at 35 psi (post #11).
Lower to 28 psi, and go for a drive.

You say your tires are at 35 psi (post #11).
Lower to 28 psi, and go for a drive.

I did actually do this as well. But I need to try and figure the toe now

 

[DirtDonk]

One model addendum/special note.
Next time you’re checking caster, include the floor level, front to back, in the equation.
The axle being zero side to side is fine, but since caster is a fore/aft angle measurement, make sure the ground the vehicle is sitting on is not skewing the numbers.
It might only be a fraction of a degree, but you might as well add that to the equation for accuracy and consistency.

 

[DirtDonk]

Have you done a toe-in measurement yourself before?

 

[joshua]

Have you done a toe-in measurement yourself before?

No, but I’m thinking of using angel iron clamped to the face of the disk brakes to measure off of. Would that work?

Also I ordered a 3/4-16 3.5 inch length bolt a week ago. Still hasn’t arrived. I need that bolt to raise the track bar on the riser. Would it be okay to use a coarse thread one until it does come?

I Can’t get one in my little town. (It’s actually 140k population) I can get the bolt if I drive 85 miles and I can only do that on a week day. Not missing work and driving a 170 mile round trip for a bolt.

And with my luck I would get there and it would be coarse thread anyway because the kid I talked to probably wouldn’t know the difference. Not a knock on the kids today, it’s just the way things are now and my luck.

 

[Broncobowsher]

I'm going with you are over thinking it.
2 pieces of tape, for marking. Masking, electrical, packing. You could even use a paint pen.
1 tape measure.

Behind the axle pick any two tread blocks. One per tire. Something you can hook the tape measure off of is best. Mark the tread blocks with a piece of tape. Measure the distance. Roll the truck forward enough you can get clean access between the 2 marks you used in the back. Measure again. Front distance should be shorter than the rear distance. Difference is your toe. Takes out all the variables that people often get people messed up with.

If you measure 60" between 2 points behind the axle. Then measure the exact same 2 points in front and get 59¾", you have ¼" of toe in since the front is narrower.

 

[.94 OR]

If you use Broncobowsher's technique, but roll the vehicle backwards 1/2 revolution, you wouldn't distort the tape on the tire lugs.

Question though, in the above example, would you have 1/4" of toe, or just 1/8" toe since you would be comparing the lead in from the axle center?

 

[Broncobowsher]

I would still roll forward, send the tape over the top. Going forward is the normal direction of travel. If there is any oddities, camber playing with the toe for example, they are taken out by going the normal travel direction.

As for halving the split the mesurment, not really. I look at it as you are not getting the true back of the tire since you have to go low to clear the radius arms and driveshaft. Likely a bit in the front as well. So you are already correcting for that by way of where you are forced to make the measurments.

 

[DirtDonk]

Toe-in/out is the difference between the leading edge of the tire and the trailing edge of the tire.
So no, you don't get a toe tally by measuring to the center of the axle. Unless you meant to take that measurement and double it?

And rolling forward is the accepted method, no matter what tools you use, because there is too much chance of unaccounted for variations when rolling backwards, if anything is even remotely loose or flexible.
And as said, forward is the normal direction that we care about when driving. So it's the normal direction during measuring.

I've never worried about the tape measure, since I have never even tried to leave it in place while rolling the vehicle. Measure once, take it off, roll forward, measure twice.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

No, but I’m thinking of using angel iron clamped to the face of the disk brakes to measure off of. Would that work?

Yes. It's a common method.
But the key is to make it long enough to mimic the diameter of the tire that will be used.
The more common driveway method (I believe) is to use the sidewall of the tire. I've done it too, but I find that too many truck tires have too many sidewall discrepancies that can skew the numbers.

That said, for me it doesn't really matter, as no matter what I set it at, any time I'm doing a vehicle for the first time, I take what I set it at, drive it for awhile, then tweak it slightly over the next few weeks until I find where it likes it best.
It's usually where I set it initially, but not always.

Also I ordered a 3/4-16 3.5 inch length bolt a week ago. Still hasn’t arrived. I need that bolt to raise the track bar on the riser. Would it be okay to use a coarse thread one until it does come?

Can't you use the bolt that's in there now?
Nothing wrong with coarse thread at least for initial driving around. If it's determined that the added strength of a fine-thread bolt is worth it, then by all means change it back out as soon as you can get the correct bolt.
Probably more important getting one with the correct length shank?
But I would not hesitate to use what you have in the short term.

Paul