1987 Chevrolet V20 front leaf spring replacement

[iamtherealJayy]

Took the truck down the road, steering is awful. Complete junk. My wheel is straight when I’m going straight down the road but I have to turn the wheel every bit of 60° in one direction to start turning, and if I am going straight and one of the tires catch a groove in the road or something it starts to veer off that direction and the steering wheel is still straight never moved. At one point I was driving in a slight turn with the wheel completely upside down. Can anyone explain how replacing the drag link made the steering worse? I’m fine with a little play but this was like dangerous amounts of play.
Edit: I did notice I could grab the steering shaft above the gear box and spin it quite a bit, my sister said the steering wheel was turning all by its self lol she didn’t know I was turning the shaft. Does this sound like a blown out steering box? If I get a new steering box I should probably get the frame brace as well?

 

[AuroraGirl]

Took the truck down the road, steering is awful. Complete junk. My wheel is straight when I’m going straight down the road but I have to turn the wheel every bit of 60° in one direction to start turning, and if I am going straight and one of the tires catch a groove in the road or something it starts to veer off that direction and the steering wheel is still straight never moved. At one point I was driving in a slight turn with the wheel completely upside down. Can anyone explain how replacing the drag link made the steering worse? I’m fine with a little play but this was like dangerous amounts of play.
Edit: I did notice I could grab the steering shaft above the gear box and spin it quite a bit, my sister said the steering wheel was turning all by its self lol she didn’t know I was turning the shaft. Does this sound like a blown out steering box? If I get a new steering box I should probably get the frame brace as well?

is your steering wheel.. uh... loose? have you played with the box ever at all?

did the wheel turn by itself with the column locked? did it have play llike could you wiggle the input to the box? I can go out to my f150 and play ragdoll with that thgat bitch, also with the steering wheel the whole damn column can shift around. But thats a ford, you have something made by saginaw fortunately.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

Steering wheel is attached, never touched the box. No the wheels does not move once locked but I figure I can lock the wheel by turning the shaft at the gear box lol. I’m going to try and get more grease packed into them today. I read someone else’s forum where they had front end completely rebuild and had useless steering and turned out the place hadn’t greased all the new joints. I greased mine but the boot has metal rings so I just put a few pumps in it since I couldn’t really get my grease gun nozzle on the zerk fitting
Edit: how tight are you supposed to make the castle nuts? I tightened with a closed end 7/8” wrench until it was snug then rotate little at a time until I could slip cotter pin through.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

In lack of works to describe the situation I’ll video everything I can later and post link here to try and show as many issues as I can

 

[Nonstop]

There are torque specs for the ends. It sounds like they may be loose still.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

I didn’t want to tighten them too much to the point the dotter pin didn’t go through the castle nut, I have around 6-7 minutes of videos I’m trying to compose into one video and I’ll post the link, I did put more grease in the ends.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

Steering shaft play:

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In the cab turning wheel and driving up driveway:

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Turning lock to lock:

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New drag link:

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My best shot of the frame at the gear box:

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Going back down driveway:
https://youtube.com/shorts/shTWFM7rB8Y?feature=share
Idle clip since the truck randomly shut off twice while just idling:
https://youtube.com/shorts/qUUnwrC3nYY?feature=share
If anything catches the eye let me know and I’ll take photos of that specific area.
Edit: in the video of lock to lock near the end you can hear the clink noise I mentioned earlier

 

[Grit dog]

Don't want to send you down the wrong road throwing more parts at it, but unless there's obvious play in the drag link (new, no play)or tie rod ends (new, no play, unless the castle nut is loose), it really sounds like the steering box.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

When I get off work I’m going to try and tighten the castle nuts to a torque spec. Although I’ve read everything from 40-75 lbs of torque.. so I’m going with whatever between gets me where I can put the cotter pin through and hope that helps some. I just tightened them with a closed end wrench until snug and slipped the cotter pin through.

 

[Bextreme04]

When I get off work I’m going to try and tighten the castle nuts to a torque spec. Although I’ve read everything from 40-75 lbs of torque.. so I’m going with whatever between gets me where I can put the cotter pin through and hope that helps some. I just tightened them with a closed end wrench until snug and slipped the cotter pin through.

"Snug" is not enough. It's hard to explain what tight enough feels like, but I wouldn't say snug. Make sure they are good and tight, then go far enough to get the cotter pin in. Never loosen to get a cotter pin in. Looking at the video, the steering box looks to me like it is plenty tight. Go through and make sure you have thoroughly tightened all of the suspension bolts and steering linkage bolts.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

Update: the longer tie rod end of the drag link was no where near tight enough and when turning the wheel it slid up in the steering arm. I’m going to tighten both of them and see what happens then continue to try and find the center tube to replace mine since it’s bent.

 

[Redfish]

Have you tried taking some of the play out of the steering box yet? I am assuming you know how to adjust the steering box, sometimes there is more play there than it looks like.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

Actually the gear box didn’t appear to have any play, I could hold the steering shaft and barely move it and the pitman arm moved as well. But the steering arm end of the drag link is loose so none of the movement made it to the wheels.
Edit: yes I read a forum on here I believe about the adjusting gear box

 

[Bextreme04]

Actually the gear box didn’t appear to have any play, I could hold the steering shaft and barely move it and the pitman arm moved as well. But the steering arm end of the drag link is loose so none of the movement made it to the wheels.
Edit: yes I read a forum on here I believe about the adjusting gear box

Watching your video it looks like the steering box is fine, thats why I said you should tighten everything up.

What part is bent? Pics?

 

[idahovette]

Yeah, I'm with Eric. We need pics of the WHOLE rod from end to end, not just the bent part.