My 99 has had a lot of slop in the steering for a long time. The truck has 801,000 miles on it, as I always chalked it up to the ball joints and tie rod ends wearing out over time...and just done some kentucky windage adjustment while driving and kept on sending it. I finally crawled under it while I had somebody turn the steering wheel back and forth through the dead zone ( 3-5 degrees of steering wheel turn) and saw that the rack and pinion body was moving back and forth across the dead zone. I ordered some new bushing for it and installed them over the weekend. When I pulled the bolts out, I noticed there was a lot of slop in the bolt holes, but didn't think too much of it until I pulled the bolt out a little further, and then saw how elongated the holes were through the cross member. I had some leftover keystock and woodruff keys that I used to shim the bolts temporarily to take up as much of the play as I could, but I'm really at a loss as to how to fix this.
The only real fix I can come up with is over drilling the holes, and having a bushing made to fit, but in order to drill those deep holes accurately, I'll have to get a portamag drill press in there, and that's going to take some sort of custom plate bolted or welded someplace else. I also considered welding on a plate to each side with a new hole, but unless I can find some hardened steel, I think the plates would wear out pretty fast.
Any ideas are appreciated!
