Steering gear box/pitman arm failure??...what can

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cause this?

Truck is a '97 Isuzu rodeo with 200k miles; has been squirly, wandering for roughly 2yrs; has recently gotten really bad.

Took truck into shop, guy said I was very lucky that I hadn't been driving it much as there's nothing left to the gearbox for adjustment, and he could imagine the truck's been real washy.

It has, in fact, been a pain to drive since my last alignment 2yrs ago. I honestly thought that it was me, as I only drive this truck once/twice a month, so I thought the odd way it was feeling was because I didn't drive it much.

The other day however, I could swear the steering wheel was not in tune with the tires at 65mph....really freaky!....that's when I said enough is enough!

Other Isuzu owners I talk too have said this is extremely rare, and I appear to be the only one (on my Isuzu forum) that's experienced this issue.

Thing is, this truck is not driven rough, very gentle driver actually. Truck has in fact seen it's fair share of rough forest service roads, at very slow speeds though; does not see any extreme off-roading.

Power steering pump was replaced 6-7yrs ago, shocks have been replaced, but that's the extent of the suspension work needed on this truck....other then repacking of the wheel bearings/rotors, etc.

Any insight would be great. Truck is getting new steering box, wheel bearings, front end alignment, but I dread the thought if this ever occurs again.....not a cheap fix!

Could this simply be a matter of parts just wearing out too? This truck is our cross-country hauler, having been to 48 different states in 13yrs.
 
From what I understand, that adjustment on the steering box is only to be used when the box is rebuilt. Once it is set, tightening it further just makes the box wear out faster.
 
Mine had never been touched. Bought the truck new, I've never had to do any adjustments.

But I didn't know that..thanks for the info.
 
My '97 Crown Vic (268k, ex-cop, ex-cab) had some play in the steering. After replacing the pitman arm, left side tie rod ends (inner and outer), and the upper control arms/balljoints, the play has been reduced quite a bit. There was no play between the steering wheel and the steering box, which eliminated the steering column as the source of the problem.

Worn parts can definitely cause this problem, but I would suspect the other parts besides the steering box. It seems to me that the pitman arm and the tierod ends would wear out long before the steering box ever did.
 
Whatever the cause it may have been parts wearing out, it could have been a poor manufacture casting/product, contamination, a hard jolt causing a defect.. but at 200k brush it off, if you had someone replace it ask them to check it out to see if the can find a cause, if not maybe find a good alignment shop that you can ask them to check it out, and tell them what happened..

My outlook is at 200k I don't worry about small stuff like this, whatever the reasons a few I listed above as long as it's not one thing after another. Izuzu made the pup I think it was with the small 4 cylinder diesel (it may have been a 3 cylinder I can't remember) but I always admired that truck, it was no power king, nothing fancy just a very economic truck.. I overheard someone talking about mileage when he purchased one new, or close to new years ago... if my memory has not failed he was saying 40 mpg !! We need a small or midsized truck with a diesel engine with nice power output, I dunno about like the Ranger 4.0 V6 power output, this would outsell any other truck on the market in my fortunes 500 analogy !!

Sorry to stray from your post, but anytime someone mentions Izuzu I always think of that pup with diesel engine.
 
I don't know if your truck has a steering damper or not, but my 97 Jeep needed a replacement. Jeep used a tapered pin on the steering linkage that is very difficult to remove. Mechanics often end up using the blue tip wrench plus a BFH to get them loose. After my damper was changed the steering box ended up so loose it needed replacement. The garage didnt say there was a direct connection, but fortunately it was under warranty.
 
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Try to check out as often as you can your Steering Gear Box and your (removed non site sponsor link) . If ever, try to have a remedy on that one. If not, try to buy a new one. There are a lot of auto parts that have been selling good quality parts that can suit your needs.
 
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