Steering box issue??, Long post!

[93TwotoneXLT]

Hello all!! It's been AWHILE since I have been on the site. I think that I may have an issue with the steering box on my 93 Explorer 4x4. Shouldn't say mine, I gave the truck to my stepdad and he has informed me of a vibration/pulling to the right on the highway.
He has had some work done to the X that he told me about after the fact, so I was unable to verify what was done actually needed to be done. Ok, so here is what is going on.
He originally complained to a local Raben Tire dealer that the X was pulling to the right hard when driving and asked for an alignment. The problem just started all of the sudden and he thought that maybe he knocked the alignment out when ran over one of many of the railroad crossings that curse the southern indiana area. They looked at it and told him that the upper ball joint sleeves needed replacement before they could do the alignment. They also show him where one of the steel bands on the front tires had let go so they recommend them as well.
So he has them replace the upper ball joint sleeves, put two new front tires on, and align the truck. They call to let him know that the truck is done so he goes to pick it up and guess what...it's still pulling to the right, albeight not as bad as before.
By now he tells me about it and I check it out. A little background on me, I am a former Ford service manager so I know these X's pretty well. So I check it out and the first thing that I see is that the sleeve on the drivers side radius arm bushing has broken/fallen out and the bushing is pulling out from the radius arm. Well, obviously this is not a good thing so I take the truck to the shop and point this out to them, and the tech agrees that he should have seen this before recommending upper ball joint sleeves, so they replace both of the radius arm bushings and re-align the truck. I go to pick it up and it is still pulling to the right. I take it back and tell them and he shows me the printout from the alignment and all of the numbers are in the green, and about as close to zero as you can expect from a twin I-beam suspension. They go ahead and rotate the new tires to the back of the truck and put the older ones on the front to see if that may help. It doesn't, but the truck does seem to pulling a little worse than before.
I took the truck out tonight after my stepdad took the X on a little trip to check on a bad vibration he says is occruring around 58-66mph, he says that it feels like the suspension is about to come apart. At this point I have checked everything in the front end and KNOW that everything is as tight as it can be, so I am stumped.
I take it out again and sure enough when driving on the highway at the above speeds it is vibrating, but I notice that it gets worse when going around a bend to the left. The truck is still pulling right pretty good so I know that this excessive vibration is probably due to the fact that you have to hold the wheel to the left a little to go straight, along with the infamous explorer "death wobble" that the truck has had between those exact speeds since I have owned it, and the fact that now the truck has two older tires along with the two newer tires. I pull off of the highway and take a back-road back to the house that is as smooth as glass and the vibration all but goes away.
I get back to the house and pop the hood and start thinking to myself, "maybe something is going on with the steering box?" After looking it over for a bit and turning the steering wheel right and left I notice that the rubber bushing that goes between the steering yoke that connects to the steering shaft is crushed and has a crack in it that is just about all the way through the bushing. So, after all of the inspecting/looking I am thinking that the bushing itself got worn beyond normal specs, and when he hit a bump it allowed the steering box to come out of adjustment/off center. I grabbed hold of the shaft with my hand and it does have a little bit of play in it.
Now that you all know the background on the problem, do you think the steering box could be the problem? Does anyone know of an adjustment that can be made?(my BMW 735i steering box can be adjusted to return the wheel back to center, so maybe this one does too) Has anyone had to replace this bushing and if so can you just replace the bushing, or do you have to replace the entire steering shaft assembly?(hope not!)
My thinking is that the steering box is out of adjustment causing the vehicle to want to pull to the right even though the alignment of the suspension is spot on.
Sorry about the length of this post, I know that it is very long but I wanted to be as thourough as possible so you know everything that I do about the problem. Thanks to all for any replies. It's nice to be back on the site, as it is the best site on the net for Explorer fans. Keep the bottom side down!:roll:

 

[Explodr94]

The rubber bushing is called a "rag joint" or a coupler. It is riveted in and there are two of them. Since one is cracked, check the other one also. The correct way to check for play in your steering box would be to jack the ex up and put on jack stands. The grab the wheels on the side and pull from side to side while having a partner watch the gear box there could be excessive play in the box. However, I am willing to bet that if you replace the rag joint/s you play will go away. I have quite a bit of play in my gear box, but my rag joints are good. I had an alignment done the old school way (with the giant calipers). The ex drives straight, but will float to the right slightly. To fix it correctly will need a new gear box, but with 230,000 don't want to sink the $$$ into the ex. I can live with the play. In my humble opinion.

Matt

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

Someone told me a while back that the steering box has an adjuster on top of it, that will "tighten the gears" inside of it. It's one of those combination screw which you have to use a wrench and screw driver. You use the screw driver to hold it still while you work the bolt up, then tighten it down. This may help take some play out of it, but it's not a permanent fix. Eventually it'll just happen again. But try that out and see what happens.

FYI, I had this SAME problem. Replaced every single suspension component I could before someone told me about the steering box thing. The steering wheel is still slightly off and has some play, but not nearly as much. Should help out.

The shudder around 60-65 is normal as well. I hear about it all the time on these boards, and I think I read it's caused partly due to the vibrations of the transmission and body match, and in effect add to each other and creates bigger vibrations. I just go faster till it goes away. But I think the "fix" for this was adding in another shock somewhere.