Stiff steering after lifting the cab

Hello all. I swapped out my cab mounts tonight on my 16 dclb. The whole was fairly simple and straight forward and went as smoothly as I could have hoped.

However, once I was done and went on a quick ride, the steering feels very stiff. It was definitely not this way before.

I did have the wheels turned away when I was removing the two keeper bolts on the bushing, but don’t see that being a thing. When I went to straighten them back to do the radiator supports, the truck wouldn’t start. It had “steering lock” on the display on the gauge cluster. I threw it in accessory and all was well, until the test drive.

Anybody have any thoughts or similar experiences to help me troubleshoot it?

 

Most vehicles have slip shafts on steering columns, for collapsing during collision. Sounds like you may have over extended that. One possibility.

 

That’s what I’ve been thinking. I didn’t loosen the linkage so I can see it being in a bind right now. At least that’s an easy fix.

 

The steering ujoints don't like to be extended, see this a lot with rack replacements or frame swaps.

Try to spray the steering shaft joint with some penetrating fluid, and give it some taps with a hammer or a long prybar and hammer, to free it up. Sometimes you get a little "bonus time" out of this method.

 

I can’t wait to find out what “bonus time” is…..I hope she’s hot.

 

Update: I gave the two nuts a twist and tapped her one good time with a shaft and she was happy.

Except now the grommet that, I assume, keeps the linkage centered and muffled doesn’t fit snugly anymore somehow in the firewall and it rattles like crazy on bumpy stuff.

 

Hopefully, the part that collapses in an accident didn't over stretch and fail.

 

After a little more digging, that’s exactly what happened.

Oh well, at least it’s fixable.

 

Well, that sucks. But at least you found out that's what it is. Not what you wanted to be doing...

 

I have two radiator/front body mounts that are shot so this project is in my future. How far do you think you separated the cab? This is the first post I've seen where replacing mounts caused this, would love to avoid this myself.