steering/suspension proplems driving me NUTS!!! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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steering/suspension proplems driving me NUTS!!!

the_don

Well-Known Member
Joined
July 29, 2014
Messages
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City, State
park city, ut
Year, Model & Trim Level
'93 exploder limited 5spd
So i acquired a 93 explorer limited about six months ago with 175,x.. miles on it, i replaced a few electrical things on it , and it ran and drove great for a few weeks. after awhile i noticed the steering was acting funny, it will do fine at a low speed at about 40-45 mph if i get in to a hard turn or turn the wheel sharp the truck will kind of wonder in the direction i want then "snap"around almost feeling like an over steer. crawled under it with a pry bar and the ball joints feel tight, so i replaced the radius arm bushing, still didnt help then replaces axle pivot bushing, nothing. front springs replaced with variable rate coil springs from moog, still didnt help. replaced rear shocks with air helper shocks, nothing. now front bearings, still no luck. there is zero play between steering wheel and tires with engine off, all the bushing i replaced came from energy suspensions, bearings are timkin. ive have second options about the ball joints from a few guys at work and a four by shop here in town. this isnt my first TTB from that ive had, first was a '89 b2 then i had a '86 full size bronco and neither one of them did anything like this. im tearing out my hair trying to figure this out, i love this little truck, but i cant keep driving it the way it is. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!
 



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So your taking corners at 45 mph and wondering why it doesn't handle like a sports car.
 






these explorers are known for rollovers so i wouldnt suggest turning that sharp with that kind of speed, if you are talking about wide turns where that speed is acceptable then i understand a tad but the suspention is not the best in the explorers so it wont every really handle really, really well like a "sports car" will. go through and check all the suspention and stearing and if they all seem fine then im not sure where to go from there but if anything i would check everything you can first before you start replacing parts you think might be the problem.
 






What's left? You have tested or replaced just about everything...

1. Steering linkage, tie rods, center link, etc.. You could have a bad tie rod end on just one side and not find it with what you have written so far. You MIGHT get a clue by greasing the front end and seeing if the behavior changes.

2. Sway bar links and bushings

If you replaced the front springs, I am guessing you already verified 1 and 2, but maybe not.

3. Tires, maybe a separation or internal defect you don't see.

4. Something in the power steering.

Any lift kit or modifications?

I'm going to assume your turns are not as dramatic as they read, since you did them regularly in your B2 and didn't roll over at some point. A hard turn means different things to different people.

You have been to a couple of shops... I assume they test drove it, what were their thoughts? A good alignment shop would diagnose this easily.

You know, I had something a little like this once. It went away after I replaced a front U joint in the passenger side axle. The U joint was almost solid with rust and it would not flex easily with the hub in turns with 4x4 disengaged.

Wow. When I started writing this post, I was thinking you eliminated everything. I ended up giving you a lot. Hopefully you have already checked most of this stuff!
 






so les schwab said it was the "cheep" goodyear AT tires i had on it and tried to sell me a set of street performance tires, the four by shop said it might be the leaf spring bushings, one guy said it might be the steering box gear mesh might need to be readjusted, and another said it might be a front u joint, there is so mush mud and yuck on the joints i cant see anything but it feels fine.
 






My guess would be that the tires are, in fact, your culprit. If you've got the $ for them, the BFG A/T tires are going to make a noticeable difference. They've got a lot stronger sidewall, with less "give", so they won't get "mushy" in the corners. Just my $0.02!
 






i have been thinking about a new set of DuraTrac's, and with winter around the corner maybe its time to drop some coin
 






I actually had some good guesses.

He's right about the tires. For what you want to do, stiffer is obviously better, and as an owner of cheep goodyear AT's, they are quite bouncy.

I can see bushings, right along with the sway bar links I mentioned. Those could all be replaced for the price of one tire.

Steering box, the factory manual has quite an involved process. One might turn the adjuster a quarter turn each way and see what happens. I'm not much on steering.

U joint is easy. Get it in the air with the hub locked and the wheel turned hard in one direction or the other. If the u-joint does not turn freely, then that's an issue.

I suppose I would do the tires if I were thinking about it anyway, and the bushings and links because they are probably original.

I'd inspect/test the u-joint, that's a freebie easy. Were the u-joints replaced during the ball joint replacement? If I didn't get it by that point, then I might think about the steering box.
 






My guess would be that the tires are, in fact, your culprit. If you've got the $ for them, the BFG A/T tires are going to make a noticeable difference. They've got a lot stronger sidewall, with less "give", so they won't get "mushy" in the corners. Just my $0.02!

+1 on that... at least, I had exactly same feeling of "snapping" and oversteering as the the_don, with my kinda-sporty Nissan 300ZX when it was wearing real cheap soft sidewall tires (can't remember the make - Edited: "Barum", IIRC) in front. Replacing those with Pirelli fixed it.
 






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