Front passenger Tire ran into a tree last weekend while out wheeling. Not a big slam but it was decent. I noticed a good amount of play in my steering while on my way home once I hit the pavement.
I figured out how to adjust my steering box and proceeded to tighten the steering up. I tightened it too much I guess cause it did get rid of the play but it made my steering very stiff.
so I went back in and adjusted it again. The steering is fine now but I've noticed that when I'm turning left or to my driver side there is an intermittent skip. Very slight and barely noticeable but it's there. I'm guessing it happens once on each rotation of the wheel.
No noticeable leaking from steering box, nothing out of the ordinary from power steering fluid. hoses and everything else look good.
Any ideas?

2000 D2 with approx 165k's

 

Sounds to me like you damaged the tire, or the wheel. Could easily have damaged the internal structure of the tire.

 

Tire?...nope the tire is fine. Thanks anyway though.

 

I've seen that when there's internal damage to the box. If it happens for long enough you may experience a "blocking" where you're turned and you hit a stop in the steering and you have to rotate back and forth before finally getting past the stop.

 

It's almost the exact opposite of that. When i'm turning I get a skip that feels like I've lost my steering for a split second then it grabs again.
I'm guessing this is more then a simple power steering flush fix. Thanks for you suggestions.

 

Will it do this with the front tires off the ground or is there not enough resistance to tell?

When it does it...can you keep it on the "bad spot?"

If you can, see if someone can keep the wheel in that general position and actually take a look at all the components to see if something has slop in it. You might be able to see where the skip is occurring. Look for movement of any part that's not passed on to the next one. You might also want to try it with the engine off...both with the wheels on and off the ground. If it's internal damage to the box, It should show up with or without the power steering pump working. Hope that makes sense. I'm having hard time explaining that.

You probably mucked up your box, but I'd make sure you check everything else before replacing that on an assumption. Stupid trees

 

Also you probably already checked this, but look very closely at your balljoint that goes into the pitman arm, if that's at all tweaked it could cause this. It happened not 2 weeks ago at Conclave.

 

That looks familiar

 

Thanks for all your suggestions.
I sis get the steering arms ands the ball joints. It's not any hit like that.

I did find the skip while turning with the engine off and had someone jiggle it in that spot but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

I've kinda moved up out of my pay grade with this one. I really don't want to start changing power steering fluid, and buying steering boxes just trying to figure out what the problem is. I may have to take it to the garage that did my alignment.

I'm not really to worried about the drivability aspect of it but I just don't want to loose my steering while on my way home from work. If it stayed like this I would be fine with it but if it's the signs of big bad things to come then I want to get on it.

 

Just closing this one up. I finally had time to get dirty in my driveway last weekend. I dropped the steering arm and played with the tension on the steering box to try and pinpoint the slip in my steering. I was able to find a spot in the steering box adjustment that corrected the slip in my steering.
I can only conclude that when the allen wrench adjustment on top of the steering box is tightened too-much you can get tight steering and this slipping feeling I experience. My alignment is still off but the steering is back to normal.