Rancho 9000 shock question

[VehiGAZ]

But of course...

http://www.planetisuzoo.com/articles.htm/88

This procedure basically just takes up the slack in the string of ball bearings in the recirculating-ball steering system.

I want to add a correction of sorts, though. In this article (with pictures!), it says:

"Making the adjustment needs to be done in very small increments. Tightening the adjustor too much will make driving the truck VERY difficult. It won't return to center, and it will behave like the camber is out. By small, I mean like the distance from the 5 to the 10 on your watch."

That was not the case on mine. I loosened the lock nut, and while holding it in place with a box wrench, I tightened the adjusting screw probably about 3/4 of a turn until it didn't want to turn easily anymore. Another poster somewhere said they tightened theirs 3 or 4 full turns. I think it's a case of the looser your steering is, the more slack there will be in the adjusting screw. My advice is to tighten the screw until you feel the resistance, tighten the lock nut, then give it a test drive.

A couple of tips:

- Take a quick drive before you do this to fell out the slop in the steering wheel as a point of reference (I hadn't driven my VX in two days when I did this, and it was hard to figure out how much it helped until I drove to work on Monday.

- Definitely remove the top of the fan shroud. If you can figure out how to get the bottom half off, do that too. It gives you a the room you need to work.

- My steering box is mounted at an angle that did not allow the use of a 2-foot rachet driver extension and a deep-well socket, because the extension was blocked by the radiator itself. I ended up putting the deep-well socket on a two-inch extension and used a breaker bar as a crow-bar to break the lock nut free. Whatever works, right?

Good luck!

[VCAMILO]

Thank you VehiGAZ; I have been having a slopy stearing for the last 6 to 12 months. I will give this a crack this weekend.

[transio]

Looks a little complicated. Where is the gearbox located?

[VehiGAZ]

Not at all complicated! It'll take you less than 30 minutes, and that includes orientation and prying-loose time.

The adjustment box is pretty easy to find. Pop your hood, locate the right edge of the radiator and fan shroud (that's YOUR right as you look into the engine bay), follow it straight down, and look for the top of the cylindrical thingy with the bolts at the corners and the slotted adjustment thingamabob in the middle that looks like picture #2 in the article (sorry to burden everyone with all this technical jargon).

Itsticks out from the engine side, not on the radiator side, at approximately the same height as the bottom edge of the radiator. There are a couple of radiator hoses in your line of sight, but you'll see it.

The directions are easily condensed:
1) remove top half of fan shroud by removing the 2 screws on top and prying off the 2 clips on each side that hold the two halves together
2) loosen the lock nut around the slotted adjustment screw
3) tighten the slotted adjustment screw until it takes up the slack
4) retighten the lock nut
5) test drive
6) repeat as necessary

Good luck! It won't take any time at all!