thanks guy21,
I have an appointment for sat morning to have the steering shaft looked at. My regular dealeris booked , bla, bla, so they couldnt look at it for a while, so am taking it to an alternate. I will post an update then, they didnt want to talk about normals, etc. for freeplay, or how to check it. Anyway will get it looked at. thanks again.

 

I may have posted the wrong freeplay. I have 15mm movement each way from center. So in effect I have 30mm of freeplay from side to side total. depending on how its looked at. Anyway its excessive!

 

super66

Good luck. Don't let the dealer tell you that your freeplay "is within Ford's spec" or "that's normal for a used vehicle" like mine did. Let them know there is a spec in the service manual that you know about.

 

guy21, thanks I will take no prisoners to get it replaced. I have a ratio to share which makes sense.

My steering shaft is approx 3cm across, my steering wheel is 39cm across, producing a ratio of 13 to 1. So a 1mm gap, wear, slackplay, etc., will produce 13mm travel in the wheel. This also corresponds to the play I saw of about 2-3mm, producing about 30mm of wheel play. Those ujoints and connecting pins must be tight. anyway thought it helps prove our quest, brent.

 

I had my 01 in for the wiper box recall last week. Asked the tech to look at the front-end again. "Check for loose / or out of spec tolerances in steering". Same ole' song and dance. "Everything seems ok". However, I like the service manual tip. That will be next. Oh yeah, received a courtesy call from the dealer asking about their sevice work that was recently done. Told them the wiper box replacement went real well(hard to screw that up)but the front-end still is an issue. She seemed concerned/interested in my story but we will see where that goes. This forum sure helps. My thanks to all of you. My problem has existed since 5/00 when the truck was ordered/purchased so you can seee why I am frustrated. Just a reminder; I have taken the truck to a local front-end shop for a look-over. Their findings were and still are the idler and pitman arm looseness. Even when replaced by Ford dealer and driven straight to the shop, same condition with the NEW replacements.The feeling is to replace with non-OEM parts. They have checked into after market parts but none exist yet. Let's keep this issue alive !!

 

Well I just returned from the dealership...good news/ bad news, I think........Good news is the service writers were not in on saturday, so I reviewed my concerns with the tech that will work on the problem, also took him for a drive, demonstrated the wandering, spongy feeling, clunks, rear axel whine.
1) ford has a tsb on the rear axel whine, I read it, says this is a charactoristic of the f150 vehicle, no service required.
2) technition found the steering tight and no excessive play...my play he says is the rubber movement to insulate the vibration, had a realistic conversation with him, so we are going to try a couple things. Have an appointment next friday.
# 1. take a real look at the alignment issue, set up the lazer machine and realign knowing the problem, also the lazer machine, so he says will also show any play in the components. In having two idler arms replaced, they each told me they checked the alignment, however the tech was'nt sure as the vehicle history didnt show it. Also said they have a problem with these trucks settling, can change just sitting.
#2. Interesting, they have a tsb on removing the crossmember that the torsion bars go into, applying a ford supplied glue, reassebling to eliminate flex . This we are going to try.....

 

super66

Interesting. Did you have a chance to compare your free play to that of a brand new one? What did you think?

 

I did check a new one for freeplay, I thought it was tighter but the tech could not tell the differance. The allignment tech did say, after I explained that they checked the allignment after each Idler arm ant it was in spec, "did they give you a printout, fords spec has a very wide range". I think he was trying to tell me something. I am heading to Arizona on the 7th and would sure like to make the trip not looking like I'm intoxicated going down the road.

 

super66

Good luck. I expect to take mine back in this week. Will take the ruler and cpmpare steering wheel freeplay of a brand new one to mine and then to the service manual spec. I drove my neighbor's with about 30,000 miles and feel his is still within the 3mm in the service manual. Maybe we should rename this thread "SCrew Loose Steering" and try to get the guy's in the Wandering Screw thread to join.

 

guy21, good idea on the thread , yup.....The freeplay was difficult to argue because the sensetivity moving the wheel was hard to measure because it did move the tire slightly, especially with the power steering going, just seems "spongy".....So i am going with this for now, fridays the day. It seems like its just one stall after another, time/milage/warantee keep slipping away! Part of the master plan I guess...................Dodge might be my master plan..Ha.....have 5 fords sitting here..........

 

Is your next dealer visit tomorrow? Please post the results. I went out and checked mine again by turning the steering wheel and looking to see when the tires actually move. Mine has about an inch of freeplay without tire movement with the engine running.

 

Dropped it off this afternoon, crawled under it with a crowbar and cannot find whats moving arround. Hope the dealer tech does me right, said he would, I will let you know after I pick it up. Alternate plan is to follow up with a dealer in arizona! I want to get the allignment specs in case it improves or corrects it, at least have another starting point. How did you do, did you check with the dealer? More tomorrow............brent.

 

I had a call yesterday wondering if I could bring the truck to the dealer next week. They were going to pick a day and time, haven't heard back yet.

 

Well as we expected, the feeling is still there! They realligned $52, then applied under warantee a Special service bullitin #15502 pop/click/clunk noise from front end - 4x4 only. It may be holding the road better / not sure, no miricle for sure.........When I got back I checked the torsion adjustment, and found about an inch differance from side to side, cranked the drivers side up 2.5 turns will drive it in the morning to see if there is anything noticeable. I am trying now to find something else on the vehicle????? Had a lincoln (88) that had a bad set of rear springs, it would bounce and cause the front to plow in 1 corner, causing a push/bumpsteer feeling. I intermittantly feel that push in this truck, feels dangerous. May try a steering stabilizer, also a rear stabilizer bar?? Just dont know where to go. If Im lucky maybe something will fall off on this trip and we will know what to fix. Anyway, good luck, I will be out of touch for a few weeks, lets keep troubleshooting, somebodys got to get a fix... brent.

 

Yesturday I corrected the differance from left to right in the ride hight, it took 2.5 turns on the driver side torsion bar to level, (the bolt is definitly turned in farther) . I measured from wheel flair to the tire. Have approx 8 inches, all 4 wheels. This seemed to help??????????? I wasnt as aware of the wandering this morning...Anyway I couldnt tell the hight differance without measuring, looked ok by eye, again thought the dealer would check it??