1988 F150 supercab, 140k. A few months ago I replaced that tie rods, drag link, and just about every other piece of the steering to try and cure about 2 inches of play in the steering wheel. After getting it aligned the truck drove staigh and felt better, but the play was still there. So today I replaced the steering gear box. I marked everything as I took it apart and put it back together exactly the same. I took the truck around the block and the play is gone but the alignment is way off. The truck will center itself and go perfectly straight, but steering wheel is turned to the right almost a quarter of a turn. Like I mentioned before if you make a turn and let the truck center itself it goes perfectly straight but the steering wheel is way off. The steering shaft is indexed so that cant be wrong. The pitman arm is in the exact location that it was before the change and if I were to turn it to the next indexing mark it would not be parallel to the box. The steering wheel has never been removed and is indexed as well. I am thinking that there was so much play in the old box that the alignment was done without the wheel being straight and now that the play is gone is pulls left and the wheel is turnd to the right. I may just get under the truck and make a small adjustment to both tie rods and see what happens. It is going to have to realigned any way. Anybody got any suggestions? The rag joint is in good shape as well. Thanks.

 

If there was a lot of play in the old steering box it would be impossible for them to accurately center the steering wheel when you had it aligned. You can crawl under there and adjust the tie rods, just make sure you turn each one the same number of turns so that your total toe stays where it should. If your going to have it aligned anyway it will be easy for them to center the wheel during the last part of the alignment. The wheel being off center won't effect tire wear or how the truck drives.

-Jon

 

I figured the wheel was off when the alignment was done. Do these steering boxes have a center point in them? My concern is that once I center the wheel and move the tie rods the pitman arm will not be in the same location it was before. Cenetering the steering wheel will move the pitman arm about an inch to the left so it will no longer be parrallel to the steering gear. Does that matter?