Crunchy, binding steering wheel column (...and other things)

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Ceri

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2016
Posts
108
Reaction score
22
Ram Year
2005
Engine
Hemi 5.7
Hey gang. It's been awhile since I've been here. I sold my challenger and hopped back into a 2005 Ram 1500 4WD Laramie with a 3" body lift about a year ago (May) that I've named Frank. Frank had about 96k miles when I got him. He's sitting at 102k miles now. I take him to work and back, or home depot, but otherwise we use the girlfriend's car.

My steering wheel has been making trouble for me lately and I'm looking for some help in diagnosing it. The symptoms are:

1. When I rotate to particular places (fairly repeatable in park) I get a clunky knock clang sound that I could swear is coming from the center of the column.
2. Occasionally (not easily repeatable) the steering wheel will bind and/or lock up where I can't return to center until I jerk it the other way. So making a right turn I'll complete the turn and try to recenter the wheel, but it won't go left until I jerk it right (as if to free it from a pinch). It's done this twice in 2 months, both at low speeds. It's rock solid when it happens.
3. At full lock and low speeds, I believe I'm getting a light grinding sound. Exhaust is a dumped and rusty flowmaster of some sort from the previous owner so I keep the radio up a bit when I'm driving.
4. When the steering wheel is at full lock, it looks like it's physically higher than it should be. I don't know if this is normal or not, but might suggest the column itself is bent? I've just never heard of a steering column getting bent.
5. Probably unrelated, but the windshield wiper intermittent settings have a mind of their own and sometimes when I start the truck, the wipers will swipe a few times. I mention this because it's a problem, and in case there's some kind of wire bundle that might be getting caught on some part of the steering apparatus.
6. Also probably unrelated, my driver's side headlight (aftermarket HIDs) keeps having the ballast die. Again I only mention it because I've got two electrical issues, which could suggest a wire getting caught by the steering occasionally, though I can't find anything.

Steps I've taken to fix it, and relevant repairs:

1. I replaced lower ball joints, upper control arms, tie rod ends, hubs, drilled/slotted rotors, and pads, about a year ago when I got it.
2. I replaced the steering rack with a remanufactured unit about 3 months ago. I threw in some poly bushings to reduce flex and hopefully go the distance.
3. I replaced the clockspring about 6 months ago, BUT the dealer serviced the airbag a couple of weeks later, and I know they like to damage the clockspring when they're doing this.
4. I took the wiper motor apart and cleaned out the guts, regreased it with some dielectric, and buttoned it back up at the same time as the clockspring.
5. I replaced the intermediate steering shaft with a Borgeson 952 a couple of weekends ago. Interestingly, I had the steering wheel pulled at the time, including the multifunction (wiper) switch. The wipers swiped a few times when I started the motor to rotate the steering shaft to tighten bolts.

Power steering fluid level is good. My only guesses at this point are a bent column shaft (never hear of this and a new column is $1k), the reman rack is bad with a chipped/ground down tooth because the clunk is repeatable (but of course out of the 3 month warranty), the CV axles are somehow linked with the steering which would explain the grinding sound at full lock. If the power steering pump were going, I'd expect a leak or a squeal. I've got neither.

The truck has a 3" body lift on it, and I had the T bars mildly cranked for awhile. Not fully level, but about halfway there. I'm aware it's rough on the suspension, so I didn't go crazy with it. I'm rolling 35" Trail Grapplers on 17" rockstars. It's a pretty heavy wheel combo with a pretty good offset. 4 wheel works fine.

Any advice or help would be much appreciated. The binding wheel makes this dangerous, and I don't like playing around with dangerous driving conditions.

Thanks gang!
 

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