Yikes....looky what we found on the 77 when changing the oil!

[taxreliever]

 

[taxreliever]

Rockauto has a Doorman part for $46 and a China part for $16, so where it's a steering part.....I think I'll go with Doorman.

The pitman arm was a little loose also and may need replacing if it doesn't tighten up.

 

[fatherdoug]

That doesn't look good. Glad you found it in time.

 

[smokey]

Glad you caught it, sucks big time when they give out.

 

[kiwi f150]

Thats great you found it before anything bad happened - it really does pay to have a good crawl around every couple of months looking for stuff just like that ...... i've got into the habit of doing that on my truck even though we have six monthly safety inspections.

 

[cbaker65]

Mine was worse than that,my steering bushings where totaly gone,an
steering shaft was litrely moving up & down about an inch.Mine was
a hazzard just waiting to happen.
I replaced it with a universal joint...

Glad you spotted it...

 

[taxreliever]

Thanks everyone. ....When steering goes while you're driving. ....I've heard bad things can happen. Part will be here Friday and should be put in the beginning of the week.

Sent from my not so smart phone using Forum Runner!

 

[bucks77ford]

Yep, it pays to pay attention. Nice catch.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

Great catch dude.

Ryan

 

[taxreliever]

Thanks again fellas....I'm pretty finicky when it comes to the maintenance on my vehicles (my wife crabs on me about it) and because of that I can tell when something just isn't right....harder on the two dents cause I don't drive them all year and enough in the summer to really be in touch with it....but there was way too much play in the steering when I took it out the other day and the box has only 13k miles on it, so I didn't think it needed that much adjusting.

 

[taxreliever]

Duncan was helping me find an oem/NOS part, but I wanted to be able to safely drive this rig....especially w my son in the rig w me? So had the doorman part put in for now.

Sent from my not so smart phone using Forum Runner!

 

[DNFXDLI]

I have it on good authority that he is still on it

 

[taxreliever]

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Sent from my not so smart phone using Forum Runner!

 

[taxreliever]

I was bummed to hear from my mechanic that the part in there (one that broke that was in there originally) wasn't oem or NOS.

It also had the plastic kinda piece in the middle versus the threaded / more flexible/much stronger material the doorman was.

Sent from my not so smart phone using Forum Runner!

 

[DNFXDLI]

That right there Ken is why I get so critical of places like LMC....it might look good, but nowhere near OEM quality.

 

[taxreliever]

That right there Ken is why I get so critical of places like LMC....it might look good, but nowhere near OEM quality.

Yup.....good example. ....it had cheap China or LLC crap in there and is why it broke w less than 14k miles on it.

Sent from my not so smart phone using Forum Runner!

 

[m78]

Being that close to the headers could have caused it to have a shorter life.
Maybe a heat shield between them will protect the new one.
I'm surprised that flexible conduit on the steering column hasn't melted.

 

[taxreliever]

Being that close to the headers could have caused it to have a shorter life.
Maybe a heat shield between them will protect the new one.
I'm surprised that flexible conduit on the steering column hasn't melted.

It does look awful close to the headers, but I'm wondering if that's just an illusion thing.....I'll have to take a shot from above the engine bay to really tell the distant....if that plastic cover (which, that's all that is, for show really) hasn't been affected, than the heat probably didn't amount to much on the coupling.....but from holding the two pieces together, you can definitely tell the massive difference in quality.

 

[75hiboy]

Wow! Great catch