steering woes

01thunder

01thunder

New member
new tires, alignment, suspension, etc. was on the highway doing 80+ and the steering wheel was moving left to right, right to left. not fast like a shimmy but moving. now what? none of this happened with bad alignment and bad tires. i am assuming the new tires are bad. any ideas? this is starting to be a pain in the ass for me, not being able to find competent people to do work.
 
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01thunder said:
new tires, alignment, suspension, etc. was on the highway doing 80+ and the steering wheel was moving left to right, right to left. not fast like a shimmy but moving. now what? none of this happened with bad alignment and bad tires. i am assuming the new tires are bad. any ideas? this is starting to be a pain in the ass for me, not being able to find competent people to do work.
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It's probably not the tires if it's not something that is consistent with speed. Go over the steering and visually inspect everything. I'd suspect the steering before anything else with the movement that you described. Does it still track straight while the steering wheel is moving around??

Also, make sure it's not the stretch of highway that's throwing you for a loop. I think we all pay more attention to how the truck feels after doing work, and I know I have been tricked by a crappy stretch of highway right after getting new tires.
 
Did it happen right after you got new tires? If so, they could be bad or something could've been broken during the install. I'll second the stretch of highway maybe causing you issues. I always think something's wrong with mine when I drive through a certain stretch of highway on my way to work. Truck seems to just go where it wants.
 
Oh my, I'm assuming you got your steering centered by now. You know a bigger tire, less caster, = the death wobble. But I've never seen it with a R&P, better look for any looseness, and of course the tires.

:couch2:
 
Wooden Payload said:
It's probably not the tires if it's not something that is consistent with speed. Go over the steering and visually inspect everything. I'd suspect the steering before anything else with the movement that you described. Does it still track straight while the steering wheel is moving around??

Also, make sure it's not the stretch of highway that's throwing you for a loop. I think we all pay more attention to how the truck feels after doing work, and I know I have been tricked by a crappy stretch of highway right after getting new tires.
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Srabai said:
Did it happen right after you got new tires? If so, they could be bad or something could've been broken during the install. I'll second the stretch of highway maybe causing you issues. I always think something's wrong with mine when I drive through a certain stretch of highway on my way to work. Truck seems to just go where it wants.
Click to expand...

it's not the highway as it was like that the whole trip. when i had the bald tires and no alignment, even after the upgrades in steering and suspension, that never happened. it does track straight.

all this is happening after new tires/alignment. again. with the bad tires and no alignment, the wheel was straight, tracked straight, no shimmy/movement, etc.
 
IBallEngineer said:
Oh my, I'm assuming you got your steering centered by now. You know a bigger tire, less caster, = the death wobble. But I've never seen it with a R&P, better look for any looseness, and of course the tires.

:couch2:
Click to expand...

no still out. tires/wheels aren't bigger. total height is same as older sets. what is r&p? the wheel moves left to right constantly at high speeds so i would say the tires are bad. it is not a fast shimmy like being out of balance. i am going to swap the rears to the front and see if the shimmy goes away. if not, then there's definitely something else and need to find it.
 
01thunder said:
no still out. tires/wheels aren't bigger. total height is same as older sets. what is r&p? the wheel moves left to right constantly at high speeds so i would say the tires are bad. it is not a fast shimmy like being out of balance. i am going to swap the rears to the front and see if the shimmy goes away. if not, then there's definitely something else and need to find it.
Click to expand...

Unless it is consistent with the speed of the tires, it's probably not the tires. As in, at 80+ MPH, it would be a fairly high speed shimmy. A quick calculation tells us that the tire is rotating at 14 revolutions per second (at 80 MPH), so it's very likely that the vibration would be on that order. If it's slower like you said, I'd look into the steering like everyone else is saying. Maybe something was even left loose during the alignment. Also, make sure your ball joints are all in good shape.

I could be totally wrong, as it's hard to diagnose a shimmy without being in the car. But from what I've seen/felt, usually tire problems are going to be directly related to tire speed.
 
inners, outers, ball joints, struts, springs, etc new. none of this happened prior to the new tires/wheels/alignment. even running on bald tires in the front the steering wheel didn't move like it does now.
 
Maybe before the alignment your truck was always pulling to one side. The slop in the column being under a little load at all times. Now with the correct alignment it's floating while going straight ahead.

In the "3rd Gen FAQ, Tutorials, & Documentation Reference" Thread, listed under the heading Steering/Front End Maintenance you'll find this.


Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle

Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle - TTORA Forum

Diagnose your truck in 10 seconds listed here in post #1



Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle - Page 2 - TTORA Forum

Easier updated fix is shown here in post #42.


Worked wonders for me!
Hope this helps.
 
BrianSD_42 said:
are your inner and outer tie rods Toyota/OEM or other ?
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So Many Roads said:
One easy thing to check - tire pressure. Overinflated tires cause steering issues at high speed.
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all OE stuff. tire pressure 35psi. it's ironic that nothing like this was happening before. is it possible that the rack has excessive play now, i guess. but right after? i would say after a while of driving but right after? i will look into this other stuff because i am to the point to where i don't want to drive it now.
 
ok. i isolated the rack from the steering column. surprisingly, the rack is tight without play. the column, well, the shaft under the dash has a lot of play, which i had already suspected. could that be causing my problem(s)? i have seen the procedure for putting spot welds on it to secure it and taking things apart and it is easy. my problem is having one car, so i can't rip and tear and have it down too long. second, no one around me has a mig welder to do this, which i would rather do. unfortunately, a lot of the equipment i had, i had to sell due to certain circumstances so i am limited on what i do.
i could find me another column shaft and have it ready for a quick swap, but am not paying a couple hundred for a column just for the shaft. i have done this stuff before as older cars have the same slip joint that with time and use get sloppy.
 
01thunder said:
ok. i isolated the rack from the steering column. surprisingly, the rack is tight without play. the column, well, the shaft under the dash has a lot of play, which i had already suspected. could that be causing my problem(s)? i have seen the procedure for putting spot welds on it to secure it and taking things apart and it is easy. my problem is having one car, so i can't rip and tear and have it down too long. second, no one around me has a mig welder to do this, which i would rather do. unfortunately, a lot of the equipment i had, i had to sell due to certain circumstances so i am limited on what i do.
i could find me another column shaft and have it ready for a quick swap, but am not paying a couple hundred for a column just for the shaft. i have done this stuff before as older cars have the same slip joint that with time and use get sloppy.
Click to expand...

I lost my welder too. But took my column to a local welder who does odd jobs out of his garage now that he is retired. (I just searched google maps for "welding") Cost me $10. I took mine apart and reassembled it in my driveway first, then drove the truck and the tools I needed to the welder. Popped it out again, crackle crackle, popped it in again. (So much faster the second time) All better now. Do it!!
 
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Also took this picture with me so he knew exactly what I wanted. If you can't find a welding shop, then how about asking a muffler place?
 

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Did you ever fix your steering issues? I used the TTORA thread mentioned earlier. I just posted this thread with links to the TTORA thread and a few pictures of mine. steering play
 
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