Have any of you ran into a problem where you can steer very sharp to one side and hardly at all to the other? I recently bought a 79 Dodge 1-ton 4x4 and then I got it off the trailer, I found that to the right, it will barely turn until I am all the way maxed out on the pump, and to the left it will turn very sharply. In my mind, this means that the pitman arm is not centered on the sector, or that the gears have slipped on the inside of the sector. I cannot for the life of me see why anyone would have removed the pitman arm and out it back on wrong, so I am leaning towards internal damage. Have any of you had the geares strip out and jump teeth causing a problem like this?

could the steering shaft, be bolted up wrong?

sounds like they didnt center the steering box gears when they put it back together drop the pitman arm and make sure the gears are centered check steering wheel for center also and reinstall pitman arm. good luck

I understand what you are saying about the gears not being centerred, but I have no indication that this box has ever been apart. That is what makes me concerned that the gears may have slipped inside of the box. I know I can just drop the pitman arm and move it on the splines to get it centerred, but I am worried that I may have problems on the inside that could come up again later....maybe while driving down the highway! Dropping the pitman arm is not a walk in the park on a 4x4 truck either, as the leaf spring is right underneath and makes things pretty hard to get to. I hate to go through the whole deal of pulling it if there is actually a problem internally.

Does it have a lift kit on it?

i've had that problem before. i found the pitman arm was bent some and not alowing the sterring box and tires to center equally.

You could possibly have a bent spring hanger on front, or possibly somebody tinkered with the adjustable stops at each knuckle?

I really appreciate the inputs guys....No lift kit, BTW. I did not realize that the pitman arm splines are indexed, I guess I can scratch that off the list. I got the box off the frame last night, so I will start doing some more looking after work this afternoon. About the stops at the knuckles, do you mean at each wheel there is an adjustment in how far the wheels will turn? If so, I still don't really think that is what I am up against, as my pitman arm will only go so far in one direction even with the drag link not bolted up, so the wheels can't be holding me up. To me , it seems like there is either something broken in the box not letting it turn as far as it should, or maybe someone put the wrong drag link on the truck. I am thinking that could be the case and the drag link is too short, causing my pitman arm to be pulled past center for the drag link to reach it. I will keep investigating!

Sounds like your headed in the right direction.

The box is not centered, the box only turns X amount of times .

The teeth on the gears are to big to skip , if something did skip you would have bigger problems in it . Turn it from lock to lock , find the center and put it back together.

I am not sure exactly what you mean by the box not being centered. Do you mean I need to take the box itself apart and center the gears inside? The reason I ask is that I don't see how to center it otherwise. I realize that the pitman arm needs to be in such a place where it turns the equal amoutn to each side when the wheels are straight, but as a prior poster mentioned and I have verified, the pitman arm is indexed so that it only goes on one way, you can't put it on any other way. The drag link is not adjustable, so I if I move the pitman arm to a point where it is centerred, the drag link will not reach the pitman arm, as it is not adjustable. I know I have to be missing something here, but I am frustrated to the point that I am not thinking straight I'm afraid

Remove the pitman arn and turn the steering wheel to the full extent one way. Then turn the steering wheel all the way to the other side counting the turns. Move the wheel back half the turns you made one way and reinstall the pitman arm with the wheels straight ahead.

The pitman arm on a 4wd can only go on one way, due to four flat areas on the steering sector shaft and inside of the pitman arm having to line up. With that being the case, I cannot just take it off and move it slightly one way or another to center it. This was what I thought at first too, but thanks to another poster mentioning it, and then me doing some looking at my setup, I know this to be the case. I am starting to think something is bent. Maybe I should just buy a longer, adjustable drag link like you see on trucks with suspension lifts and adjust center that way. Does anyone think this is a good idea?

The pitman arm could go on four different ways, it would be a 1/4 turn. Do what is suggested above, turn the wheel lock to lock and then turn back half as many turns and put the pitman arm back on where it looks centered and proper. Bolt up the drag link and adjust the toe if its out.

You will find it very common for the 72-93 4x4 trucks to turn sharper left than right. about 1/2 turn. An adjustable drag link will fix your problem.

I actually just found this info out on another site....It is really odd to me though, as I have owned about 10 of these trucks in my life time and never noticed it before, at least not like this one! I am going to get an adjustable drag link and see if I can't even it up some. I appreciate the help, and I will post once it's done to let you guys know what I find out. Do any of you have a good recommendation of drag links? The one I keep seeing when I search is a Superlift model that goes for about $250 bucks.

Regarding the moving the pitman arm a 1/4 turn, I do realize you can do this, but it's not that far out, that would be pretty extreme.

Do some measuring and comparing of the older Gm trucks as they were smart enough to use an adjustable link. If not search thee suspension companies and e-bay.

Good call on the Chev parts, I actually remember seeing adjustable ones on those trucks. I will see what I can find.