Trying to chase the cause of offset steering wheel.

[sneekyeye]

So after a trip to Hawk Pride in NW Alabama, my steering wheel is around sixty degrees offset to the right.
I can't for the life of me find any reason for it to be this way.
My main tie rod looks straight, my tie rods from the steering box to the knuckle seem straight.
I undid both leaf spring packs and the centering pins weren't sheared off.
I slipped the pitman arm down, and the splines on the steering box output are straight.

I was leading the easy group in a local Wrangler club with the truck, and with some not particularly vigorous off roading, have somehow mucked up my steering.
It still seems to drive good, just the steering wheel is wonky. I drove it home and its been apart since with me working on it trying to find a cause.
All steering tie rods and leaf spring bushings were new as of last spring. The only reused piece was the center adjusting sleeve on the small tie rods.

I'm curious if the upper arm attached to the steering knuckle looks bent more than normal in the photo.
Anything else to check would be appreciated.

 

[royalflush55]

I would suspect one of the tie rods has moved in one of the reused centering sleeves if everything else has checked out.

Is the toe in still the same?

 

[WillWagner]

Is it lifted and maybe the first hard wheeling outingor maybe it is just getting old? If the springs sag, the steering wheel will do that. A drop drag link fixes that. My K30 continually did that when I used it.

Here is an example...

https://www.roughcountry.com/adjustable-drag-link-6619.html

 

[sneekyeye]

Its not lifted and is only wheeled on relatively easy trails, no hard rock crawling or mudding if I can help it. I go offroad maybe once a couple months or so depending on the groups schedule. That is what has me puzzled because everything Ive looked at seems perfectly fine.

Edit: It does have the Off Road Design steering brace in place and it is still tight with no damage to the frame.

 

[Tinstar]

Was it always this way or did it occur on your last trip?

 

[sneekyeye]

The last trip out did it. Before that it was fine.

 

[Tinstar]

Steering wheel shaft splines stripped or skipped position?
Something in steering shaft?

That’s quite a difference in steering wheel position from one trip to the next without something being stripped or busted.

 

[CMPPhil]

Have you checked the rear springs? Is the truck crabbing when driving in a straight line? How about doing X measurement front to rear axle.

But as others have mentioned if this change took place in short period of time then something has slipped. I'd be concerned that it could slip again.

I have a 78 civilian Chevy and it's steering wheel was not center, in that case it was just a poorly done parts replacement both the drag link, and tie rod. Nothing had been centered the only thing that had been adjusted was tow in.

Keep us posted on what you find, I love a good mechanical mystery.

Cheers Phil

 

[319cssb]

I noticed that one side of the axle in my truck seens to be slid back slightly . Maybe a 18 inch and my steering wheel is not straight center, either. Could the axle shift be the reason? And how do i fix it?

 

[cucvmule]

Have the upper king pin bushings been replaced?
Have the lower bearing packs been inspected in the spindle?
How about the swaybar bushings, has the sway bar moved in bushing, racking frontend?

I went to the quarry and was driving over a boulder pile and when I
got off the rock pile I noticed my steering off to the right. So I went up to a big
rock that fit under the bumper and pushed my left front tire against it hard enough to push the rock and backed off.

 

[cucvmule]

Lost part of my post. After backing off I noticed that the axle had racked off to the right because of the spring pack had shifted on the front spring eye bushings and the sway bar bushings were holding it in place. After racking the axle back I looked at why and seen that the springs distorted at the spring eye bushings and the rear shackle spring mount in the frame and the bushings need replacement also.
The rest of the front is tight and or having been replaced already. Tie rod ends, upper king pin bushings, lower spindle bearing pack, everything but spring packs and bushings have been replaced.

I would bet it just racked over from spring pack distortion caused by bushings being
worn and then sway bar bushings holding it in place.

 

[Barrman]

Check your rag joint too.

 

[sneekyeye]

I haven't driven it since I got it home and I don't remember if it dog tracked or not on the way back. I did measure the distance from the rear spring eye to the u bolt mount on the rear axle and each side was within an eighth inch of each other.

I'm going to remove the steering intermediate shaft and check for messed up splines at the steering box and at the bottom of the steering column. I'll remove the drag link and check for stripped threads on the adjuster sleeve.

I have replaced the upper kingpin bushings and springs already, but I will do some prying to see if there is any suspect movement in the joint while I'm in there. The front leaf spring eye and shackle bushings were replaced last year. The sway bar was disconnected at the park before all this foolishness happened, and it was straight prior to the first trail we took. I will try and screw it back in to see if there has been any movement in relation to the sway bar eye bolts. The rag joint appears to be in good shape and has no tears or obvious failure.

I'll post back with more findings later.

Edit: Checked the knuckles and kingpin and couldn't get any play in them. The rag joint looks like it could stand to be replaced, but it's not so bad that I think its contributing to this issue. The splines on the intermediate shaft and steering box are fine, and I can see no evidence of stripped threads on the drag link adjuster or the tie rod adjuster. Still gripping tight and can see the threads through the gap cleanly aligned. I did, however, notice something strange on my passenger leaf spring pack. It appears that the passenger side is bent near the front. When all the weight is off of the axle the pass side also hangs about an inch and a half lower. I'll attach pics.

I suppose if the one side is riding lower than the other, that could cause my problem. When I had the spring u bolts off to check the centering pins, I did not see any cracks in the leaves. I will have to put the tires back on and put the weight back on the suspension and recheck the ride height on a slightly warmer day.

 

[cucvmule]

Just out of curiosity did you push the sway bar down to the mounting holes?

I would agree that the leaf spring has been stressed. I have had them far worse and put in my press and "straightened " back as best I could. Are they the same? Well never but do you want to buy spring packs all the time? There are sway bar brackets to lower bar at frame, but yours should be fairly close but will be pushed back because of the geometry of the arc. But still not to extreme. If you want travel and want to disconnect sway bar, then a lot more stress is put on spring eyes on both ends causing twisting multiplied by distance of travel.

Now that I look at the pictures again I just realized that there are no leaf spring clamps causing the pack, 3 distort even further.

Some guys put on rear leaf packs, 52 inch and relocate the front bracket to give a better angle for flex but moves the axle forward creating other mods to make work.

You play you pay. Right now 86 K30 I have an 8 inch lift pack of 7 leaves bound by clamps on the first 2 longest leaves that I kinked when I hit a boulder a little to hard and broke the u clamps to the axle, and broke the front shackle off the frame at the same time, YIKES. A lot of weight up front to work with. The front 5 pack 6 inch on my 85 K30 dually first two longest clamped, is still straight and front sway bar. Heavy truck, but I am not boulder happy, just pulling logs, hole shots and MUD.

Let me add you are not wheeling till you are STUCK, and two other trucks are stuck too trying to reach you. The 6x6 singles AWESOME!

 

[ehuppert]

Check toe setting with tape measure (front and back of tire). If toe-in seems appropriate that would narrow things down to steering arm, draglink and backwards to column... don't believe the bent spring wold cause that much offset in the steering wheel

 

[Chaski]

Besides the whole crabwalking idea...
have you checked how tight your front leaf mounting bolts are? If your front eye on the drivers side slips a tiny bit, or your axle slipped on the spring that could explain it. I’d retorque everything.

You said that your draglink and tie rod ends are pretty new. Might be worth getting someone in the drivers seat to move the steering wheel left to right, while the vehicle is on the ground and observe the rod ends. The check is quick...

 

[nyoffroad]

That spring being bent shouldn't change the position of the steering wheel.This defantly "old school" but try taking a long string tied to hitch, exhaust pipe whatever then go around the center of one rear tire up to the front tire keeping the string close to the center of all 4 tires. What you are doing is creating a datum line to measure from. Ideally the string will touch the front and back of each tire but probably won't, in that case move the steering wheel until the gap is the same left to right. Now you can measure and see what's out of whack, I've built street rod frames doing this and it works!

 

[ehuppert]

String trick won't really work too well on these, front track width is wider. A sixty degree wheel change is substantial, don't think it's something worn.... Something shifted quite a bit somewhere!

 

[nyoffroad]

String trick won't really work too well on these, front track width is wider. A sixty degree wheel change is substantial, don't think it's something worn.... Something shifted quite a bit somewhere!

String has worked for me, but then again I only did frame work for a living.

 

[sneekyeye]

Alright, some info to report from today's tinkering.

I did not attempt to reattach my sway bar before I removed the nuts from the leaf spring u bolts, so I can't say for certain that they did or didn't line up when I got back home. I went in there today and reattached it, the passenger side lined up. I hadn't assembled it by the book on the driver side so i had to loosen it and bolt everything back down correctly. Now everything is assembled properly and the sway bar lines up fine. I had no trouble screwing in the bolts.

I did find some play in one of the drag link tie rods that I had replaced last year. That could be contributing. I'll have to put another one on there pretty soon.

I checked the leaf spring bushing bolt torques, and all of them were not torqued to spec. I tightened the front to 90 and the shackles to 50 per info in the TM. I had them apart last year or so when I had put the new bushings in. They could have loosened up, or not been tight enough to begin with.

Leaf spring clamps were mentioned, there are clamps on the rear of the front springs, that seems to be correct according to the drawings in the TM.

I put the weight back on the axle and without measuring yet, it appears very close from the bump stop to the u bolt plate on both sides. The boy and I got the sway bar bolted back up and then had to run off to
dance class.

I'm going to try the string thing, and measuring the toe to see what it is at once I get the tires back on. We're supposed to be getting rain tomorrow, so it might be a day or two.