Steering problem. Bad.

[chevyCUCV]

Unbolt the tierods and turn the wheels by hand, then rotate the axle shaft joint and try again. Make sure there are no binds on any of the individual caps.

I went through this on my truck, it took me forever to realize how the ujoints affect the wheels even when in 2 wheel drive

 

[acesneights1]

I have a video of the truck somewhere. I'll post. Atleast it was an 8 lug. I have seen guys run 44's on 6 lugs .

 

[dstang97]

What happens is the springs over time fatigue and do not put a lot of pressure on the on the plastic bushing that goes around the cone. You can put some washer under the cap or buy a new kit from ord

Dana 60 Kingpin Springs and Bushings Kits from Offroad Design 4x4 Parts

 

[acesneights1]

heres a pretty good write up on the rebuild (yea I know it says pirate 4x4, but it's a decent write up) Pirate4x4.Com - Extreme Four Wheel Drive

yeah that was where I read up on the rebuild.

 

[acesneights1]

15 inches a lift on a 44? ok..........

Oh look 44's on a D44...

 

[acesneights1]

Another truck...

 

[Hasdrubal]

"unless your in 4x4 a u joint will NOT cause a issue like that because it is not spinning."

I'll have to disagree with you on this. My M1009 had steering pull issues that turned out to be front axle u-joints and the symptoms all occured in 2wd with hubs unlocked.

 

[acesneights1]

I'm gonna put the truck on jacks Sunday and start pulling stuff apart. Maybe the washer trick will eliminate the symptom or I'll see alot of yuk under the caps. I don't think it's u joints because when it was doing it I put the t case in 4x4 which would spin the axles and should have had some kind of effect and it did not. It's gotta either be the king pins or something coming apart in the gear box. I checked the frame as well. No cracks.

 

[acesneights1]

15 inches a lift on a 44? ok..........

And last but not least...
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ0mN7RxnTE[/media]BTW I was mistaken. Looking the the vid now It had 15 inch superlift springs(no longer made) and a 3 inch body lift...All on a Dana 44..
.And I 4 wheeled the balls out of it. 454 Ls6....
I had a professional welder cut the axle tubes on the DANA 44 and rotate them back to correct the caster with the increased pinion angle. I sub chassis the truck and lowered the steering box about 8 inches and used a steering shaft from a peterbilt to eliminate the rag joint. Remember...this was close to 20 yrs ago...Cross over steering was not around. In fact most stuff had to be made custom.

I will post a better video next week when I can get the VHS transferred to DVD. I did this with my cell phone off the TV. The tape is 19 yrs old.

 

[Warthog]

This thread was closed to stop the name calling.

 

[Warthog]

The thread has been edited to keep the name calling out of it. It has been reopened

 

[GM-M1008]

All the truck I had were Dana 44's. I could rip a 44 apart in my sleep. I never worked on a 60 but from what I have been reading it's no 30 minute job and the parts are crazy. The kits are 82$ per side. If I need new bottom caps that is another 44$ per side and I do not have a 7/8 hex so I can imagine what Snap on wants for that. The article I just read on rebuilding the king pins was not pretty and involved a rosebud which I do have so...I'm just sayin....The author said it took 3 hrs for dissasembly and judging by his pics, I believe it.
I do not know if I have a race driver either that small. I have large truck ones.

this is where I get my parts
ORD - Dana 60 Front Axle Parts, Chromoly Shafts, Steering Knuckles

 

[acesneights1]

Ok, no trolls please.
Now to update ryan77 gets a partial prize. The drivers side u joint was bad and binding at 180 deg . I took a small vid ill post later of it. The truck has some wobble still. I will replace the upper kp bushings next and add a washer since i am running bigger tires.
Ill post some pics of the dissassembly as well.

 

[ryan77]

Im glad u figured it out!! These trucks can make u go crazy!!

 

[acesneights1]

I would bet on the axle shaft u joints are frozen, or at least one is. Even with the hubs turned out the axle shaft will spin some as you drive down the road. If the u joint is froznen in one axis it will bind when that axis is lined the wrong way.

It is very hard to tell if this is happening by inspecting the axle shafts in the vehicle. If you jack it up and can turn the shaft and try to turn the wheel. You will find a place where it binds up and the wheel is extremely hard to turn.

One 1008 I saw did not do this all winter while plowing. As soon as the hubs were turned out the axle ujoints siezed in a few days and made the truck very erratic to drive.

Well, It's been awhile since I posted in this but round two...Passenger side.
Exactly what you said above but this time the steering was binding so bad I could not drive the truck.
I'll try and post some pics tomorrow but basically the truck felt like it lost power steering and driving down the road it would pull violently to either side. I honestly thought this time the PS pump was bad but I still had power brakes so maybe not. I jacked up the front of the truck and put it on jackstands and the wheels would not turn. I popped the drag link off the box and the box turns fine but I could not turn the wheels. it looks like the passenger side axle joint is rusted so bad it is binding to the point where it will not turn at all. Amazing, tis is the only truck i have ever owned that this has happened to(twice no less). I've blow front axle joints to bits but never had one seize to the point where it binds the steering. As I drove down the road I put the truck in 4wd with the hubs UNlocked to try and loosen the axle joint a little. The truck started shaking like super bad king pins. I'm gonna do the upper king pins too while I have it apart. I will assume if nothing else the springs are probably wasted. I'll do some pics tomorrow.

 

[acesneights1]

Well the axle joint was so frozen I stood on it and it did not flex. I had to cut it apart with the torch. The rotors were wasted too from the friggin road salt they use up here that is destroying everything. I also did the King pin bushings and springs. A spindle puller is a nice thing to have. I bought this years ago for the D44 but it also works on the D60 as well as others spindles. The spindle came off surprisingly easy. I remember dong some D44's and literally smashing it off destroying it in the process.

 

[acesneights1]

Oh, if you burn a u joint out with the torch keep your face back and use PPE. The grease will cause a pretty nasty flash.

 

[acesneights1]

Well now I got Death wobble which I did not before...Ughhh...I know there is a million threads about death wobble in D60's but my problem has started after I did the bushings and springs.
The truck had no previous issues with death wobble.
I got the king pin bushings and springs from ORD.
They looked the same. The ones I took out BTW were perfect. No wear at all but I figured after 27 years the springs must be weak. Now the truck has death wobble even just driving down the road. Is ORD's stuff any good ? I did not have this issue before putting them in. I did properly align the bushing with the notch in the knuckle. I am running 35 inch BFG A/Ts. I have a Rancho single stabilizer. I did not feel any play in the king pins when I tried to move the wheel up and down on a jack. Luckily I saved the old parts. I am going to put the old bushings and springs back in tomorrow.
I may have to order new ones from GM. This is what happens with aftermarket parts.

 

[dstang97]

Did you compare the springs old vs new? You could do the washer trick and see if it helps.

 

[acesneights1]

they looked the same height. I may try the washer trick tomorrow.

edit: upon adding washers I compared and the new ones looked slightly smaller. Was hard to tell without cleaning the grease completely off though.