Nealuss
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2016
- Posts
- 137
- Reaction score
- 33
- Ram Year
- 1994
- Engine
- 5.2L 318
First off a little intro and background.
I recently acquired a 1994 1500 2WD 5.2 auto as a project. My brother bought the truck about 4-5 years ago just to have a truck if he ever needed one. Well last year he decided to go out and buy a 2014 Ram 2500 4WD Laramie Cummins and no longer needed the puny little 20+ year old 1500. I saw some potential in the old gal and decided to buy it off of him for cheap. Only problem is the truck has nearly 300k on the clock. It is in surprisingly good shape given the mileage, but definitely needs some TLC.
First thing to fix is the steering. When my brother got the truck it was barely driveable. In fact it was scary to have over 20mph. I replaced the pitman arm on it and it was at least driveable which was fine since it only went to the trash dump once a month. Fast forward a couple of years and now it is in my possession and I decide to fix the sloppy steering once and for all. I have replaced inner and outer tie rods, idler arm, remanufactured gearbox, and installed the rock solid steering fix (bushing that replaces spring and bearing on the column) and still have about 2 inches of play in the steering. The steering feels MUCH better than it did before and every little thing has helped but it still just doesn't feel quite right. I checked the intermediate shaft for play and there is none surprisingly. I adjusted the new gearbox about 1/4 turn and it got a little better but I am hesitant to adjust it anymore since it is supposed to be good out of the box.
Also for the record I have new upper and lower control arms and new wheel bearings on the way, though I have never seen ball joints affect steering like this.
TL;DR - Replaced all steering linkage and gearbox but still have play in steering.
What should I do? Have you guys ever had to adjust a reman gearbox as soon as you put it on?
I recently acquired a 1994 1500 2WD 5.2 auto as a project. My brother bought the truck about 4-5 years ago just to have a truck if he ever needed one. Well last year he decided to go out and buy a 2014 Ram 2500 4WD Laramie Cummins and no longer needed the puny little 20+ year old 1500. I saw some potential in the old gal and decided to buy it off of him for cheap. Only problem is the truck has nearly 300k on the clock. It is in surprisingly good shape given the mileage, but definitely needs some TLC.
First thing to fix is the steering. When my brother got the truck it was barely driveable. In fact it was scary to have over 20mph. I replaced the pitman arm on it and it was at least driveable which was fine since it only went to the trash dump once a month. Fast forward a couple of years and now it is in my possession and I decide to fix the sloppy steering once and for all. I have replaced inner and outer tie rods, idler arm, remanufactured gearbox, and installed the rock solid steering fix (bushing that replaces spring and bearing on the column) and still have about 2 inches of play in the steering. The steering feels MUCH better than it did before and every little thing has helped but it still just doesn't feel quite right. I checked the intermediate shaft for play and there is none surprisingly. I adjusted the new gearbox about 1/4 turn and it got a little better but I am hesitant to adjust it anymore since it is supposed to be good out of the box.
Also for the record I have new upper and lower control arms and new wheel bearings on the way, though I have never seen ball joints affect steering like this.
TL;DR - Replaced all steering linkage and gearbox but still have play in steering.
What should I do? Have you guys ever had to adjust a reman gearbox as soon as you put it on?
