Hey everyone, im new to the forum, picked up a 1993 ford ranger xlt 4x4 3.0 as a beater vehicle to keep my newer car in nice shape. the forum has been very helpfull in troubleshooting some issues it had when i purchased it, most thankfully the 4 wheel drive, which after the motor replacemtn is all good


i did some searching but can't seem to find any good information about an issue im having with the steering. I get a weird jiggle type noise when going around corners and hitting bumps. Initially i thought it was shocks so i replaced all those, when doing that i realized the drivers side wheel bearing needed replacement so i did that. however it is still doing the noise.

when working on the shift motor yesterday, i was looking in the engine bay and noticed the steering column itself moves up and down quite a bit right at the point where it goes into the firewall (the shaft within the column is what is moving) and when i move the steering shaft around it duplicates the noise i was hearing. it almost seems as if there is a lower bearing in the column that is bad or non existant. should this shaft move at all other then rotationally at this point ? if not, any ideas of how much of a process it would be to fix this type of problem as its really annoying when driving, truck feels like its going to fall apart even though the suspension itself is very tight.

 

bump, anyone?....

 

I have a '94 xlt 4x4, and I have a similar issue. Did you ever get your fixed? My steering shaft doesn't move axially, but it does move radially, and makes noise when the steering wheel is turned. Sounds like a bearing on the steering column has worn out. Not sure if these bearings are replaceable or not.