Steering wheels center position changes while driving?

This is an issue I have been facing for some time now, slowly replacing possible culprit parts to no resolution. My alignment is good(just had it done 2 months ago, and it's just a highway/city vehicle), the truck drives straight most of the time and doesn't pull or anything like that. However, when I make a left turn with even a little bit of speed my steering wheel's center is now about 20-40 degrees left and has to be kept there to keep the truck driving straight. Strangely enough, if I then make a right turn with a little bit of speed the steering wheel center will straighten out and the truck will then drive straight with the steering wheel being nice and centered.

In combating this issue I have replaced essentially all suspension parts that I thought could affect it. This list includes: Remanned rack and pinion from Cardone, upper and lower control arms, upper and lower ball joints, and tie rod ends. Even after replacing all of these, the issue still exists, and it's eating at me when it is occasionally crooked driving down the freeway. Any input anyone has would be greatly helpful as I have run out of things to replace.

 

Rack and pinion bushings are famous for this on 1st gens.

Have someone rock the wheel back and forth while someone watches underneath.

I've seen remans with soft/loose bushings that appear new but allow a ton of play.

Double checking all the front end is a good idea, regardless of age.

 

Is the bushing that comes in the rack easily replaceable? in the kits I only ever see the parts for the D clamp mounting point on the passenger side

Reffering to this bushing(attached image)

 

The D is easy to replace, the 2 attached to the steering rack are more challenging, there's youtube videos of it I'm sure.

 

I will have to look around, haven't found any kits that include that bushing. Tough to find tutorials/videos for 2wd, most are for 4wd which has a different rack and pinion, the one in this truck is below and only has the two mounting spots.

Anything else it could be? everything else is tight no play when I jack it up and try to rock either wheel or anything of the sort.

 

Crap I missed its a 5 lug.

Either way just check it and see if there's any movement, it might be fine.

 

Will jack it up and check the bushings tomorrow, and yeah 5 lugs have annoyingly less info around this forum lol.

 

Check the steering on the ground, the resistance of the weight makes it more visible.

 

Just recorded this video, does the play seem excessive? with that much movement while the trucks were not in a turn I could imagine it being much more dramatic if it was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh_pqZqSOfE

 

Yea its moving a lot for a new rack, thats a bit of a piss off. I've seen more frequently with reman racks, but what choice is there.

https://www.energysuspensionparts.com/8.10106 pricey but they are the only ones I could find.

You can leave it, it wont hurt anything except a really off center of steering.

 

I would like to, but having to do frequent 7+ hour trips it gets on my nerves lol. Will look tomorrow at what that bushing looks like on the rack.

 

These are the ones I've used, the black version is a little more stiff than the red. Make sure of fitment for your 5 lug.

 

Possibly resolved!

So today, I headed to Oreily with a dream the bushings they had that "fit" my 5 lug would work, to not much surprise they didn't . However, something did come out of it; when pulling the rack off I undid both bolts and inspected the bushing that came with the remanned steering rack, and it looked fine. I decided to try to pull it out anyway to see how the inside looked and if there was any chance of the oreily parts fitting.

I was looking at the bushing and noticed that it had two arrows on the top flange both pointing outward and in the middle of the bushing there were corresponding "humps" (easier to see in the pictures). Initially, this bushing was installed so the arrows were pointing to the front and back of the truck, which would put the humps in a position to stop any front-to-back movement rather than side-to-side which is what was happening in the video above.

So since I'm constrained by time and the parts from the store didn't fit I decided to try to rotate the bushing 90 degrees so the humps would be pressing outward hopefully stopping side-to-side movement. Now, putting that bushing back in was not so easy, I was able to get it 95% of the way back in with a combination of a C clamp and using the bolt it was originally fastened with and a big washer on top to just pull it through. Not to jinx it but I just took it out to drive for around ~15 minutes on roads after left turns where I would usually end up with a crooked steering wheel and it seemed to be wayyy straighter and the steering overall just felt way tighter.

So this is probably not a problem anyone else is going to have as it is very oddball circumstances, but if someone has this extremely unlikely problem, this possible solution is now here. I will update if things end up not being as peachy as they seem at the moment.

 

The solution is to have the rack rebuilt. I just had mine sent of to Solo Motorsports who rebuilt it and did some minor upgrades. At only $350 its not too bad. Seemed worth it considering I have a toyoda casting rack and don't wanna give it up.

 

I had a similar problem last year after replacing most of my front end suspension parts. My alignment cam bolts had come loose. Steering wheel would go crooked after a turn (especially if there was a speed bump involved). It would sometimes correct itself after a turn in the other direction. The alignment shop fixed it.