Lose Steering Wheel

Tiny
BILMEL
  • MEMBER
  • FORD F-150
Hi. I'm hoping someone can give me some advice. My Truck is a 1996 Ford F-150 4X4 extended Cab. V-6. My problem is for the last 3 or so months my Steering wheel has been Very loose. It moves Up and Down without any force at all. It also gets this creaking noice at times and sometimes feels like it's hard to turn when i'm driving. You can imagine how scary that is! It feels like i'm driving in Thick mud when it's hard to turn but i'm not. My hubby thinks it's the Wheel bearings? Any suggestions or advice? Thanks!
Saturday, June 30th, 2007 AT 9:51 PM

6 Replies

Tiny
BILMEL
  • MEMBER
  • 5 POSTS
Wow! Ok Now i'm Thanking God that nothing has happend when i've driven it! We've got a guy who's done some basic work on it for us before and he didn't seem to think it was that big a deal. But apparently it is! I really do appreciate your help with this. I won't be driving it anymore!
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Saturday, June 30th, 2007 AT 10:40 PM
Tiny
98RANGERXLT
  • MECHANIC
  • 301 POSTS
The steering wheel hard to turn sounds to me like there is a power steering leak or no fluid
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Saturday, June 30th, 2007 AT 11:33 PM
Tiny
BILMEL
  • MEMBER
  • 5 POSTS
That's one thing we've For sure Checked, the power steering fluid levels were Ok.
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Sunday, July 1st, 2007 AT 12:14 AM
Tiny
JWALTH02
  • MEMBER
  • 180 POSTS
Justanold was right. Stop driving it. I have a 92 full size bronco that when I first bought it, it actually had the same problem. I took apart the steering collumn and found the upper steering shaft and bearings in shreds. The shaft had been worn into by the constant turning on straight metal instead of the bearings it should have had that had come apart completely.

If you want to do it yourself it is pretty simple to change, and I'd be happy to walk you through the steps, you just need to purchase the bearings and depending on the condition of the shaft a new one or one out of a junkyard but you're gonna want new bearings.

Or have it taken to a shop and have them check it out, but make sure to have them look at the bearings first which I'm pretty sure since like I said that's describing perfectly what happened to me. Good luck and let us know what your plans are :)
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Sunday, July 1st, 2007 AT 3:34 AM
Tiny
MERLIN2021
  • MECHANIC
  • 17,250 POSTS
I think justanold meant the sector shaft is being sawed in half and loss of streeing is immenent! Happened to me in a town car, while driving!
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Sunday, July 1st, 2007 AT 2:14 PM
Tiny
BILMEL
  • MEMBER
  • 5 POSTS
Thanks ya'll for the help and advice. My DH is talking to his best friend today to see if we can take the truck over to his house and let him work on it when he can. Thankfully we've got 3 trucks so I won't be without a vehicle.

Merlin I looked up Sector Shaft on Autozone. Com and it doesn't show anything. Any ideas on what to look under?
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Sunday, July 1st, 2007 AT 3:28 PM

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