USMCShooter
BrokeandSmiling
This is going to be long, but hopefully it can help someone that might have the same issue:
I've upgraded literally every steering component on this truck over the last 8 years...mostly about 7 years ago. When I bought the truck with 78K on it, it wandered pretty significantly. I put a steering brace on it because it had made a big difference on my '01. It helped...a little....then I put DOR heim joint steering in it...that helped a LOT with the wandering, but it still wasn't right. So I spent the money and put Carli ball joints in it....had a small shop in my hometown in Missouri put them in...they helped....a little...I upgraded to the big box when my original started leaking...not much difference...put new Bilstein shocks on...no change...
No matter what I did, I had to DRIVE the truck....like driving an old Jeep CJ...the memory steer in it was horrible....any input I did, it would stay that direction unless I counter steered it....It has been absolutely maddening to me...especially towing....my Son just bought an '06 and the ball joints are toast...and it returns to center just fine....wanders all over the place, but when changing lanes I don't have to catch it before it runs off the road...since I rebuilt the engine and am putting down a LOT more power, the increase in torque steer has made the truck sketchy to drive under power...estimating how much to counter-steer with a lot of memory steer can get hairy.
The truck sat for 6 months while I rebuilt the engine. When I did the first oil change after the 500 mile break in, I tried lubing the joints and the lowers wouldn't take grease....I figured because it sat so long and maybe just needed a few more miles....A couple of months ago, I was changing my oil again and lubed the ball joints...the lowers wouldn't take grease for the 2nd time. I called Carli....that's a different story...but they're now going to honor the warranty on the joints after I put them on blast on another forum....in their defense, they've had a LOT of people scamming them on warranty stuff...guys not sending their ball joints back to them and letting a buddy use the video they took of the bad joints to try to get a set for free, etc. One of their guys finally accepted that I'm indeed the original purchaser and is taking care of me.
So I decided to change the ball joints....I did a post earlier about power steering pump upgrades and someone told me to avoid Dynatrac's...well, next to putting stock junk from a parts house in them, Dynatrac is the only ones with anything in stock right now...there may be a reason for that, but time will tell....I wanted EMF's...but they're non-existent until possibly September, and I'm leaving for a 3000 mile trip tomorrow pulling a trailer, and just didn't want to fight the truck again.
When I disconnected the steering the passenger side knuckle just flopped to the stops like you'd expect broken in ball joints to do...the driver's side was a different story...it stayed where it was...and was stiff to turn...AHA! Bad ball joint indeed....but wait! There's More!!!
I pressed the Carli's out, then prepped the bores....I pressed the driver's lower in first...it went in HARD....I'm a big guy...routinely row 220lbs-plus for reps while working out....with an 18-inch, 1/2-drive ratchet, I had to LEAN on it to seat it....with no frame of reference from installing the ball joints before, I just figured I was in for some sweating (112 degree heat index) for the rest of them....nope, they all went it smooth...I found it odd, but figured that one was just a little tight...
I put the Passenger knuckle on and torqued per Dynatrac's directions...the knuckle moved stiffly, but smoothly...to be expected with new ball joints...I moved to the driver's side and repeated...installed the knuckle, torqued the top to 35, then 70 on the bottom....then 70 on the top....when I torqued the bottom one, it locked the knuckle up! As in, couldn't move it by hand...WTH!? I loosened the top one...no change...definitely the bottom one....I loosened it up some and it got better but was still very stiff and 'catchy' when turned stop to stop....bad ball joint out of the box? I highly doubt it. Then I considered how hard it went in, in comparison with the rest of them....I pressed it back out...
Here's where I'm going to make a strong statement:
If anyone runs Dynatrac, ignore the "do not deviate from these instructions" statement and use common sense and apply anti-seize on the damned stainless threads that the stainless nut screws onto! When I tried to remove the nut from the installed Dynatrac lower (with a ratchet, NOT an impact) the nut seized and ate two threads...it's a 1-1/8 nut...I promise you a nut breaker won't even touch it....nor will a 3/4-inch breaker bar with a 4-foot pipe....I wound up having to use a dremel with a small cutting disk on it to cut the nut in half.... 3 hours worth....Dynatrac is warrantying the pin.....
I measured the OD of the joint....1.815....then I measured the ID of the bore....here's where things got interesting....front to back, the bore measured 1.800.....015 interference....that's tight, but doable....side to side, the bore measured 1.773....for those of you doing the math...that's .037 out of round! And a .042 interference fit on the Knurled Dynatrac! And a .037 interference on the Carli! WAAAAY too tight! And on only one side....Standard interference for ball joints is .004-.010 circumfrentially.....So I measured the Carli joint that came out of the passenger lower....1.810....There was a flat spot on the inside (next to the axle housing) of the ball joint bore...048 wide! Nearly 1/2 an inch...and it had to be there from the factory! The truck has never been wrecked....other than the stock joints, it's only had Carli....I verified and they're both concentrically round....no WONDER this thing has memory steer! It's compressing the ball joint housing and putting pressure on the pin!
I pondered and pondered how to address it...I thought a brake hone...but that wouldn't make it round....only skip the flat spot....so I marked the edges of the flat spot, took a dremel with a sanding drum and slowly and methodically over about an hour, a couple of passes with the sanding drum, measure...repeat....and removed metal until I had it matching the front to back, 1.800.
I wound up taking the Carli lower Joint I removed from the passenger, side, disassembling and cleaning all the old, hard grease out of it, re-greasing and reassembling (perfect condition by the way) and installing it in the driver's lower...I had to get the truck back together because I had an alignment appointment Monday morning. I put the knuckle on...stiff and smooth like the other side (from the tight, new top joint).
I put the truck back together and took it for a test drive to make sure it would be good to drive to the shop the next morning...I could already tell there was a significant change to the drivability of the truck!
I had it aligned and it drives absolutely AMAZING! 8 YEARS of fighting this truck...it was NO FUN to drive and especially to take a long trip in....
So, very long story short....measure your ball joint bores if you're having problem with memory steer! This had to have been a factory defect.
Driving it is VERY intuitive now...and no more issues under power! I'm officially back in love with my truck!
I've upgraded literally every steering component on this truck over the last 8 years...mostly about 7 years ago. When I bought the truck with 78K on it, it wandered pretty significantly. I put a steering brace on it because it had made a big difference on my '01. It helped...a little....then I put DOR heim joint steering in it...that helped a LOT with the wandering, but it still wasn't right. So I spent the money and put Carli ball joints in it....had a small shop in my hometown in Missouri put them in...they helped....a little...I upgraded to the big box when my original started leaking...not much difference...put new Bilstein shocks on...no change...
No matter what I did, I had to DRIVE the truck....like driving an old Jeep CJ...the memory steer in it was horrible....any input I did, it would stay that direction unless I counter steered it....It has been absolutely maddening to me...especially towing....my Son just bought an '06 and the ball joints are toast...and it returns to center just fine....wanders all over the place, but when changing lanes I don't have to catch it before it runs off the road...since I rebuilt the engine and am putting down a LOT more power, the increase in torque steer has made the truck sketchy to drive under power...estimating how much to counter-steer with a lot of memory steer can get hairy.
The truck sat for 6 months while I rebuilt the engine. When I did the first oil change after the 500 mile break in, I tried lubing the joints and the lowers wouldn't take grease....I figured because it sat so long and maybe just needed a few more miles....A couple of months ago, I was changing my oil again and lubed the ball joints...the lowers wouldn't take grease for the 2nd time. I called Carli....that's a different story...but they're now going to honor the warranty on the joints after I put them on blast on another forum....in their defense, they've had a LOT of people scamming them on warranty stuff...guys not sending their ball joints back to them and letting a buddy use the video they took of the bad joints to try to get a set for free, etc. One of their guys finally accepted that I'm indeed the original purchaser and is taking care of me.
So I decided to change the ball joints....I did a post earlier about power steering pump upgrades and someone told me to avoid Dynatrac's...well, next to putting stock junk from a parts house in them, Dynatrac is the only ones with anything in stock right now...there may be a reason for that, but time will tell....I wanted EMF's...but they're non-existent until possibly September, and I'm leaving for a 3000 mile trip tomorrow pulling a trailer, and just didn't want to fight the truck again.
When I disconnected the steering the passenger side knuckle just flopped to the stops like you'd expect broken in ball joints to do...the driver's side was a different story...it stayed where it was...and was stiff to turn...AHA! Bad ball joint indeed....but wait! There's More!!!
I pressed the Carli's out, then prepped the bores....I pressed the driver's lower in first...it went in HARD....I'm a big guy...routinely row 220lbs-plus for reps while working out....with an 18-inch, 1/2-drive ratchet, I had to LEAN on it to seat it....with no frame of reference from installing the ball joints before, I just figured I was in for some sweating (112 degree heat index) for the rest of them....nope, they all went it smooth...I found it odd, but figured that one was just a little tight...
I put the Passenger knuckle on and torqued per Dynatrac's directions...the knuckle moved stiffly, but smoothly...to be expected with new ball joints...I moved to the driver's side and repeated...installed the knuckle, torqued the top to 35, then 70 on the bottom....then 70 on the top....when I torqued the bottom one, it locked the knuckle up! As in, couldn't move it by hand...WTH!? I loosened the top one...no change...definitely the bottom one....I loosened it up some and it got better but was still very stiff and 'catchy' when turned stop to stop....bad ball joint out of the box? I highly doubt it. Then I considered how hard it went in, in comparison with the rest of them....I pressed it back out...
Here's where I'm going to make a strong statement:
If anyone runs Dynatrac, ignore the "do not deviate from these instructions" statement and use common sense and apply anti-seize on the damned stainless threads that the stainless nut screws onto! When I tried to remove the nut from the installed Dynatrac lower (with a ratchet, NOT an impact) the nut seized and ate two threads...it's a 1-1/8 nut...I promise you a nut breaker won't even touch it....nor will a 3/4-inch breaker bar with a 4-foot pipe....I wound up having to use a dremel with a small cutting disk on it to cut the nut in half.... 3 hours worth....Dynatrac is warrantying the pin.....
I measured the OD of the joint....1.815....then I measured the ID of the bore....here's where things got interesting....front to back, the bore measured 1.800.....015 interference....that's tight, but doable....side to side, the bore measured 1.773....for those of you doing the math...that's .037 out of round! And a .042 interference fit on the Knurled Dynatrac! And a .037 interference on the Carli! WAAAAY too tight! And on only one side....Standard interference for ball joints is .004-.010 circumfrentially.....So I measured the Carli joint that came out of the passenger lower....1.810....There was a flat spot on the inside (next to the axle housing) of the ball joint bore...048 wide! Nearly 1/2 an inch...and it had to be there from the factory! The truck has never been wrecked....other than the stock joints, it's only had Carli....I verified and they're both concentrically round....no WONDER this thing has memory steer! It's compressing the ball joint housing and putting pressure on the pin!
I pondered and pondered how to address it...I thought a brake hone...but that wouldn't make it round....only skip the flat spot....so I marked the edges of the flat spot, took a dremel with a sanding drum and slowly and methodically over about an hour, a couple of passes with the sanding drum, measure...repeat....and removed metal until I had it matching the front to back, 1.800.
I wound up taking the Carli lower Joint I removed from the passenger, side, disassembling and cleaning all the old, hard grease out of it, re-greasing and reassembling (perfect condition by the way) and installing it in the driver's lower...I had to get the truck back together because I had an alignment appointment Monday morning. I put the knuckle on...stiff and smooth like the other side (from the tight, new top joint).
I put the truck back together and took it for a test drive to make sure it would be good to drive to the shop the next morning...I could already tell there was a significant change to the drivability of the truck!
I had it aligned and it drives absolutely AMAZING! 8 YEARS of fighting this truck...it was NO FUN to drive and especially to take a long trip in....
So, very long story short....measure your ball joint bores if you're having problem with memory steer! This had to have been a factory defect.
Driving it is VERY intuitive now...and no more issues under power! I'm officially back in love with my truck!
), the steering box has come back with way more play. Even my Blue Top got wrecked. It started loosening a little bit before I left Hawaii but the car carrier made it 10x worse and military won't cover mechanical damages.