79 f150 steering problems

[meadsy]

Whats Happening, I am a new here but from what I have read there are some good mechanics around here. So the reason I joined I have a 79 F150 4x4 That I have been restoring and everything but the the frame is pretty much rebuilt. When I started the drag link was bent, tie rod ends were shot, the power steering gear was trash, and my tilt steering colum was angled tward the driver side door instead of centered. The steering wheel was off centered too. The automatic shift on the colum is hard to shift and is sloppy when shifting. I cannot tighten the tilt either. I can push up on it and it moves tward the passenger side of the cab by a quarter inch or so. This colum is the problem I am still plagued with. So I have replaced the radius arm bushings, track bar bushings, power steering gear, drag link, steering knuckles, and tie rod ends. I have had a complete front end alignment. This did help the over center steering play I had. I installed poly track bar bushings and bingo the steering colum was perfectly centered however the steering was really touchy. So I found an assistant and readjusted the radius arm/cap insulators as they were not seated properly and the axle bounced. When I did this the colum is once again offcenter and the steering wheel is slightly cocked, but the steering is nothing shy of beautifull. Has anyone heard of this before? any ideas would be great!

 

[meadsy]

Whats Happening, I am a new here but from what I have read there are some good mechanics around here. So the reason I joined I have a 79 F150 4x4 That I have been restoring and everything but the the frame is pretty much rebuilt. When I started the drag link was bent, tie rod ends were shot, the power steering gear was trash, and my tilt steering colum was angled tward the driver side door instead of centered. The steering wheel was off centered too. The automatic shift on the colum is hard to shift and is sloppy when shifting. I cannot tighten the tilt either. I can push up on it and it moves tward the passenger side of the cab by a quarter inch or so. This colum is the problem I am still plagued with. So I have replaced the radius arm bushings, track bar bushings, power steering gear, drag link, steering knuckles, and tie rod ends. I have had a complete front end alignment. This did help the over center steering play I had. I installed poly track bar bushings and bingo the steering colum was perfectly centered however the steering was really touchy. So I found an assistant and readjusted the radius arm/cap insulators as they were not seated properly and the axle bounced. When I did this the colum is once again offcenter and the steering wheel is slightly cocked, but the steering is nothing shy of beautifull. Has anyone heard of this before? any ideas would be great!

Well I figured it out, I had to readjust my toe (too much toe-in post radius arm/cap insulator adjustment). Then I changed the track bar bushings again. This corrected the steering colume and wheel offcenter, however it made my steering touchy again due to too much toe-in. I set it to 1/16" toe in and bam it steers like a dream.