Help diagnosing steering woes.

[NC Tom]

My 88 4WD Pioneer is letting me know something is amiss with the front end. I am hearing/feeling clunks and pops when turning to the left. Also noticing vibration at hwy speeds and VERY stiff sharp-turn steering. The only new component is the 4 yo power steering pump.

 

Before taking it to a pro, are there some things I can check on my own?

[Billabob]

My moneys on U-joints, I had identical symptoms on mine and my U-joint bearings were ground to dust. Wouldn't hurt to check the rest of the steering while you're in there. You can compress your ball joints at the wheel and drag link with some channel locks and any play should be pretty evident. Steering boxes don't usually have minor issues other than looseness, just make sure your PS fluid is topped off.

[Eagle]

Definitely sounds like U-joints. Clunks could also be control arms, but that wouldn't cause tight steering.

 

[gogmorgo]

Get under the truck, anything that pivots, give it a shake. It can also be helpful to have someone move the steering wheel back and forth, just enough to take up all the play, which might give you some insight. You can also jack up each wheel and shake it around, see if there's any obvious play. 

[AZJeff]

On 7/3/2022 at 3:02 PM, gogmorgo said:

Get under the truck, anything that pivots, give it a shake. It can also be helpful to have someone move the steering wheel back and forth, just enough to take up all the play, which might give you some insight. You can also jack up each wheel and shake it around, see if there's any obvious play. 

For checking steering linkages,  I like to get a helper to sit behind the steering wheel and move the wheel back and forth just enough to get the front road wheels to begin turning right or left SLIGHTLY.   (Do it with the engine off.)

 

While he/she is wiggling the wheel, lay under the vehicle an place your hand around each steering linkage joint.  You are attempting to feel for relative motion between the two parts of each joint.  There should be none.  If there is, that joint is bad.

 

Next, jack up each front wheel and place a large pry bar under the tire.  Lever up on the pry bar, and look for any motion between the wheel assembly and the axle housing where they are connected by the ball joints.  Any motion means one of both ball joints are bad.

 

Control arms are best examined with a strong flashlight.  You are looking to see of the outer sleeve of the control arm bushing is still centered on the inner pivot/attaching bolt.  Looks for cracks in the rubber that fills the space between the outer sleeve and the pivot bolt.   if there are significant cracks, or if the bolt is eccentric to the outer bushing sleeve, the bushing needs replacing.

[NC Tom]

Oh boy. This sounds like money leaving my wallet. Thanks for the help. Guess I'll be getting dirty soon. 

[WahooSteeler]

My experience with the clunking sound was definitely control arm related. Mounting bolts were a little loose but bushings were worn out. That's when I took the opportunity to put on the WJ LCA's and the clunking went away and immediately there was a very noticeable improvement in overall steering feel and roll going through turns. That said, check your sway bar bushings also. If they are worn out and you're doing a full lock turn it can cause the sway bar to shift ever so slightly and make a sound. The super stiff sharp-turn steering seems like something is binding, so I second, third and fourth the above comments about having someone turn the wheel while you are observing all steering components.