Hi,

Bought the 04 Disco 5 months ago, and noticed it was a bit unstable over bumps, etc.: moreso than I would think. Truck has 55K on it, and was gone over by the dealership prior to purchse. I took it back in a couple times to have them look at the steering, etc., and they weren't helpful.

I went through and replaced the shocks with Bilstein (huge improvement), Steering Damper, and all tie rod ends. I also re-torqued the steering box. I can see significant improvements with each job., but its still sloppy. I adjusted the steering box to be a bit tighter and did the PS flush as per DiscoMike. The Steering Wheel/Steering Box is all centered (wheels straigh tforward, etc.). When the steering wheel is straight forward I have 'some' play, but not much. However, at lock, I have a bunch of play before the wheel responds. (2 inches). Tires are up at 40 lbs. front and 45 lbs.in the rear. Jacked it up and pushed and pulled on the wheels, etc, checking for end play.

All this translates as bouncing all over the place over bumps, vibrations at certain speeds etc.

I am coming to the conclusion that I need to replace the steering box. Anything else I am missing, or that I should be checking before doing that fun job?

My 1969 Series 2a had tighter steering than this thing....

Thanks

Jason

04 Disco, 60,000 miles

 

Try lowering your tire PSI, 35 front and 40 rear. Tires that are to stiff can cause similar things to happen.
If that helps then drop tire PSI to 30 front and 35 rear and see what happens after that.

 

Spike,

Good advice. I played around with it, and ended up settling at 32 lbs for the front and 37 lbs for the rear... Definitely improved the handling characteristics. I do still have some play in the steering.... more than I have had in any of the other trucks I have ever owned..... any other suggestions as to other things to check?




Thanks again.

 

Nothing that you have'nt already tried. Next step would be a suspension shop.
A good alignment might help.

 

OK guys,

Got everything aligned at a shop. As mentioned above, all tie rod ends are new, got new shocks, sway bar bushings, etc. still get the vibration, which is most noticable in the steering wheel at 46-47 mph. It vibrates back and forth pretty neatly.

I pulled offthe air intake hose, and grabbed the steering column in the engine compartment. I could move it about an 8th of a turn and the wheels weren't even moving. All the u-joints were tight, and no issues there. Seems pretty sloppy. What do you guys think? I did all the flushes, etc., that DiscoMike recomends, and also tightened down the steering adjustment pretty snug.

Thoughts? Next Step, new steering box? I can't really think of anything else to replace. The only thing I haven't done is the pan hard bushes, and that wouldn't affect the slop in the steering linkage.

 

I would do the pan rod bushings before a new steering box.
Have you rotated your tires to see if it is a bad tire?