truck twitchy when in 4 wheel drive.
 

This winter when using 4wheel drive on snow covered roads I have noticed its has become kind of twitchy. At speeds above 35mph it wants to wander and pull to the side, it realy does it when slightly speeding up or letting off. It feels like it does when its really slick and the front wheels are spining and grabing traction from side to side, but it only does this over 30-35mph and if i shift it out of 4wheel it drives and tracks fine. It didnt do it this bad last year so it seems to be something new. I was wondering about the steering stabalizer shock thing, could that be worn out? Or could it be 213,000 miles of wear and tear on the suspension components causing there to be enough slop for the front wheels to turn abit with out steering wheel input?
thanks for any replys
-jon

Check you idler arm, tie rod ends ball joints and steering stabilizer. Wheel bearings too. Jack the truck up my the LCA and grab the tire. Pull it back and forth, see if there's any play- there shouldn't be any at all.

thanks, will do this weekend. Just trying to get all the possibilities in before I get a chance to work on it this weekend. On a couple of the joints, idle arm and one or two of the tie rod end are missing the rubber boot. I just grease them up really good every oil change. The back and forth on the tire is that at 6 and 12 o clock or 9 and 3?

9-3 will check the tie rod ends, 6-12 will check the ball joints. Both shoudl check the wheel bearings.

there also seems to be a good bit of side to side slop in steering wheel. You can move it from side to side a pretty good bit without it turning the wheels any. Could this cause the front tires to want to pull from side to side, since without constant correction the tires could begin to steer before taking up the slop.

my truck has the exact same problem. it is idle arm and tire rod ends.

side to side checks steering linkages and top to bottom checks wheel bearings.... if you got top to bottom play you better get starting on them bearings.....

mismatched tire sizes / worn tires can also do the same thing particularly if the rear is pushing the front (front wheels worn more than rears). if one front tire has less traction than the other, the rear will push the front and the front side that has more traction will cause the vehicle to wander the other direction (since the looser tire slides)

Top and bottom also checks ball joints as well...

Your best bet is to jack it up high enough to get a long metal bar under the tire, and pull up. The bar will move because it is pushing into the tire. If the balljoints are junk, you'll hear a "clunk" every time you pick up and let off of the bar.