Steering u-joint

[Shantheman73]

So I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s my front hubs being locked that are causing the heavy steering I’m experiencing at times.

I had a mechanic friend check it out…turns out yes…I have a front hub actuator that’s bad. But apparently my steering u-joint is binding and that’s causing the heavy steering. He said he’s seen a bunch of ford trucks with this issue.

Anyone experience this before? If so…what was cost to fix?

 

[mkbruin]

Not sure about the Fords (I’m new to them) but on GM cars with the issue the choice was either disassemble the steering column to replace the entire shaft or to re-pack the joint with new grease and pray it works.

Re-packing is a bandaid, but usually works. To put in a new one is typically a massive pain with a lot of labor.

 

[whtbronco]

Yep, failure common. I replaced both the upper and lower shafts in my '04 with Motorcraft parts. The lower shaft had worn the u-joint causing play and the upper shaft was binding. As I recall I paid about $200 for both. Mine is a Gen 2 and yours a Gen 3, but they are likely similar. Took me about 30 minutes to replace both, but I pulled them out together. There's just 3 bolts and 2 screws to deal with and it's really fairly easy. The hardest part for me was getting up from the driver side floor to get to the upper shaft retaining bolt, LOL.

 

[JExpedition07]

Spray WD-40 on the intermediate steering shaft at the joint where it connects to the lower shaft. It comes out of the firewall right side on engine.

 

[Shantheman73]

Spray WD-40 on the intermediate steering shaft at the joint where it connects to the lower shaft. It comes out of the firewall right side on engine.

Will that buy me some time or just a temp fix at best?

 

[JExpedition07]

Will that buy me some time or just a temp fix at best?

It’ll keep it lighter for about 4 weeks, spray again when it gets heavy

 

[Trainmaster]

All true. The steering shaft should be replaced. Not a big deal. Spraying WD-40 on the u-joints got me through one winter, but it will bind up again. It could be a little dangerous, because you'll find the steering wheel not returning from curves so I'd change it sooner rather than later. I used a Motorcraft replacement from Tasca Ford. Avoid the Dorman -- Chinese junk.

 

[tommyddsr]

WD-40 is not a good fix. The joints have grease, not oil.. oil washes the grease out, and wd40 breaks down grease. You need to get some grease on that joint until you can fix it properly.

 

[Langer]

So I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s my front hubs being locked that are causing the heavy steering I’m experiencing at times.

I had a mechanic friend check it out…turns out yes…I have a front hub actuator that’s bad. But apparently my steering u-joint is binding and that’s causing the heavy steering. He said he’s seen a bunch of ford trucks with this issue.

Anyone experience this before? If so…what was cost to fix?

I just had to do this on my ‘04 Dakota. Ran about 350$ at a local shop for parts and labor. Would’ve tried it myself if it wasn’t already single digits in Chi.