I have manual steering and it feels like I have a lot of play. When I am on the freeway and am changing lanes it feels like 50mph gust of wind hits the side of my truck. When it is windy it is very hard to control to stay on the road. Is there an adjustment or do other parts wear out first? (I.E. ball joints, tie rod ends)

 

Have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth to the point of moving the tires while you poke around underneath looking at the steering linkage. What you are looking for is where one part of the linkage moves and the part connected to it does not. That point where the motion stops is where the play is coming from.

 

So...there is no adjustment for the gear box? Or, do other parts wear out and cause that?

 

There may be. I know on the power box, an adjuster screw on top of the box. Never seen a manual box. But the steering boxes rarely get sloppy, it is things like idler arm, tie rod ends, etc. that wear and get sloppy. The key is to find out WHERE the slop is coming from then figure out what to do about it.

 

Yeah...it's a little hard when you don't have anybody else to turn the steering wheel for you.

It is probably tie-rod ends most likely right?

Take a guess perhaps?

 

Well, those are wear items and meant to be replaced periodically. Other parts are too:
- http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/front_end/

Maybe try a mirror to view under the wheel well or set up a video camera or something.

 

Thanks...I got my mom to help me...which is amazing. I have seen horrible tie rod ends before and have driven like that for awhile. I just looked at it and nothing moves excessively. Everything is tight moving. It just feels like when you turn the steering wheel for like a couple inches or so that it does absolutely nothing. I can see the shaft turning into the gear box then after that I looked at all the of the joints and all of them don't move excessively. They don't move at all actually. What do you suggest? Do you want a pic of the gear box?

 

Like I said, have never seen a manual steering box. Should be in the same location as the power box below (screw and lock nut at the upper center of the photo):



Sector shaft bearing preload adjuster screw is dead center on top.

But, as far as play in the linkage goes, when you say "They don't move at all actually", that IS a clue. The idea is to start at the steering wheel, move it side to side. That makes the steering column/shaft rotate left and right. That should make the input shaft to the steering box rotate left-right as well. Likewise down the linkage to the wheels. The point is to find where part "A" moves and part part "B" that connects to part "A" does not. You want to move the steering wheel back and forth to the point that the wheels/tires just start to move.

 

They barely move. That is the problem. It is weird. It has slack or play but the wheels barely move...so I am not sure...I'll have to mess with it when I get home

 

Well, that is where you want to work your way down the linkage. Obviously at the steering wheel there is a lot of motion. At the wheels there is almost none. So someplace between the two you need to find where that motion is disappearing.

 

alright. I loosened a nut on top of the box like you said. And took a screw driver and screwed in the screw like thing. I took it for a drive and the steering wheel would not move back to any position so I loosened it. Then, I took it for another drive and it seems way better. It is harder to move the wheels now (while driving at highway speeds or in a straight line) since it is actually tighter. Thanks for the help!