Steering wheel messed up

Now you got me wondering if maybe one of those yokes slipped a little while I turned into the curb to get into the loading area or my driveway....

 

If the tire pressure is low, it'll cause the entire vehicle to pull to one side or the other. The steering wheel will turn with the wheels.

There's no reason why a steering wheel should go in & out of center like that unless there's something mechanically wrong or it was mis-alligned in the first place.

piercedtiger, get that fixed ASAP before something lets loose.

 

Yeah, maybe I'll call the dealership that fixed it the first time and see what they have to say about it. Maybe find out what they did, mention it came back, and see if they can do whatever they did last time again.

 

Most definately!

It could be related to something they did (or didn't do).

Good Luck and keep us posted!

 

there should be a "slip shaft" after the "u-joint" in the linkage... unbolt the linkage at the bottom and loosen the shaft and pull it off... straighten the steeringwheel and put it back together.... it helps to have someone in the cab to make sure the steeringwheel is straight... mine was completely upsidedown when i got the truck because the previous owner was a fucktard and installed the lift and didnt keep the steeringwheel straight

it took me about an hour to do because all of the bolts were rusted and a bitch to break loose..... and i had to do it twice because i didnt get it completely straight the first time because i didnt have someone holding the wheel straight....

another thing i must add is that mine is a first gen so im sure things down there are a bit different....goodluck!!!

 

Thanks! One more thing to look into.

 

yeah...im just not good with the technical terms...lol..... toyota calls everything something else...lol.... like they call a mass airflow sensor a air metering sensor....wtf...lol... i guess i didnt read through everyones posts before i posted... looks like chris had it taken care of.... yeah the second gens are a bit different... but the same concept for the most part... mine has a piece of rubber connecting the linkage to the steering gear pump thingy...hahaha i dont have any clue what it is called......

 

Oh. Cool. So I'll just check that when it's not raining and I can crawl under. Or have the dealer look at it tomorrow...

 

hahah honstly i have no clue what that means... but here is a shitty pic from my fone...

 

heres what it looked like before i fixed it...

damn my truck is so ghetto... but hey i got new guages...off of ebay from a salvage yard...lol my speedo still doesnt work.... i still cant figure out exactly what i need to make it work... all i know is that the vehicle speed sensor isnt hooked up.... i cant find a plug on the wireing harness or cut wires... so idk... not to mention i cant find any info about it....

 

Guess it was a good thing I took it to the dealership! Turns out the centering bolts/pins for the rear leafs (from the Toytec AAL kit) rusted through and the rear axle shifted! Guess the passenger side was 1/2" off. Not sure if that was causing the wheel problems or not as they're still working on it, but they'll be doing an alignment after that so maybe something else is messed up.

Just thought I'd update people.

 

Oh, on a side note, the service manager was checking out the truck. He liked the BHLM and was shocked when I told him they had to bake in the oven first! lol Also liked the lift, and wants to lift his truck now.

 

Final update:

Well the bolts didn't rust out, they snapped! Needless to say I emailed Toytec earlier today about this, and if they get back to me I'll send this pics to them.

 

Who installed the AAL kit?

Did the dealership say anything about the condition of the U-bolts?

In most cases, centering pins don't break like that unless the U-bolts weren't tight enough.

 

Well I installed the lift, but that was probably close to 3 years ago. I think this happened within the last 2-3 weeks. At least that's when I noticed the steering wheel being off center. Then again, there's more clearance between the wheels and the rear of the wheel well now than I ever remember so.... I just remember a small hole for the centering pin to fit in so I can't imagine I was that far off during the install. And when I had new tires put on 8,000 miles or so after the lift the garage I took it to said I didn't need an alignment. When I went in today they immediately thought something looked off so that adds to my belief it was recent.

I don't know..... From the looks of the bolts it looks like 2, maybe 3 of the leaves shifted before the pin sheared.

Still, I guess it's sort of a testament to Toyota that this didn't cause an accident, and the truck still seemed to drive normal other than the wheel being off center.