This was confounding me all day, but once I got the van on the ground and testing the steering under weight, it was binding up on the turn to the passenger side.
You can see the problem at the 47th second. It turns to the right, and the whole van kind of torques and strains, until it gets passed the problem. It’s very disconcerting.
I couldn’t figure it out no matter how many times I turned the wheel, and had my buddy B.J. help me with it.
I was kind of thinking the steering stabilizer was the problem, so I took that off.
This isn’t the Pathfinder stabilizer…. This was an aftermarket one that I installed a long time ago on the Econoline, that frankly, I don’t think works well. I did buy a new one that’s the same as the pathfinder model, but maybe I’ll work on that after I figure this out.
I turned the wheels again without the stabilizer, and it still bound up. Weird.
Next, and as much as I don’t want to do this, I’m going to get rid of the stock Econoline center link and tie rods, and try to install the old Quadravan ones. Back a long time ago, I actually cleaned this up thinking that I was going to use these, so maybe this was just fate.
Top: The Pathfinder tie rods. Bottom: The Econoline tie rods. Both look very similar, but the Pathfinder is slimmer and slightly more bent around the eyelet area.
After a little work, some new tie rod seals, and quick wrenching, I had the authentic Quadravan steering in place.
I do like this better. The driver’s side link is way slimmer. Gives me more room away from the track bar brackets.
The only downside to this is the condition of the tie rod joints. All of them are really shoddy. They are 40 years old, and they look like they are 80 years old. I need to find replacements, but there aren’t many. I’m hoping by cleaning them up, giving them new seals, and using some good quality Mobil 1 synthetic grease, that it’ll preserve what little life they have left.
Started up the van, and started turning the wheel. Sure enough, the same kinking occured. Now I’m perplexed.
What could it be?
Now I got a new project in the morning. I’m going to cut away at the running boards so they aren’t so perpendicular to the track. As long as I can make this cut clean, I should be able to set the screws into the screw boss and keep this in place.
I don’t want to get rid of these running boards. They are really useful since this van keeps getting taller and taller. Maybe I can look into upgrading to something like this:
No time right now. Just cut this up and get this van back on the road. I’m two days over schedule!
