Loose Front End

[greyford1979]

So here's my dilemma, my truck feels like something is loose in the front end. You can feel it in the steering wheel when you go over bumps, and can sometimes even here the front tires squealing on the pavement like when you do a burnout when you hit a bump or make a turn. Truck has all new tierods, brand new hub assemblies, steering gear that's only a few months old, Fox Racing shocks less than a year old, stabilizer bar and link bushings replaced last year, ball joints replaced last year, and front leaf springs replaced when I bought it 2 years ago. Only things I haven't replaced in the front suspension since I bought it, is the track bar and bushing in the frame for the shackles. I need to take it for an alignment, but would it being out of alignment make it feel sloppy like this? Could the track bar bushings be bad allowing the axle to move when turning or hitting a bump? Truck is a 2000 F250 4x4.

 

[powerstroke95]

I've been in the same situation. I've replaced everything you mentioned and it still wanders a bit. I havent got around to purchasing the track bar yet but i was told by the dealer that the track bar was causing my problems.

 

[greyford1979]

That's what my assumption is, however if feels the same as when my ball joints were bad. When my ball joints were bad in my 79 it felt the same as well. Not gonna be a happy camper if my 1.5 year old ball joints are already bad. :doh:

 

[Enoch]

Check pitman arm and swaybar bushings for correct diameter.

I just picked up a 00' 4x4 and over bumps it clunks bad (like bad ball joints) and while driving it is pretty sloppy and tracks the road pretty bad.
Previous owner said slop and tracking was the steering box and the clunk was the 'new" sway bar bushings and if throw some WD40 on them it will stop fro a while.
The whine was an obvious power steering pump.

I took it to my mechanic who is also my friend and told him what the PO said. So he took it for a ride and said the steering box actually felt pretty tight.
So while the truck is parked he had me move the steering wheel back and forth while he looked underneath. Said it was a bad pitman arm.
He crawl under the truck and starts laughing, the sway bar bushings although new had a pretty good sized gap in between them.
So he took it today and will do the pit man arm, sway bar bushing and alignment and see where we're at. As well as the power steering pump.

 

[greyford1979]

I had it aligned yesterday and it feels much better but something still feels loose only when I hit a bump. The steering feels great and tight now, ball joints are tight, sway bar bushings are tight, pitman arm is good(replaced it at the same time as the steering gear this summer). Only thing I can't really tell is the track bar because it's some sort of aftermarket or custom one that's not in the stock location and had been installed by the previous owner. I feel it mostly in the floor, right below the pedals.

 

[79jasper]

If all you're getting now is a clunk under your feet, (no steering issues) I would replace your body mount bushings.

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