wobble in steering wheel - RAM 2500

From : perry noid

Q: a friend has a 98 2500 ram turbodiesel... the steering wheel has always had a little wobble but lately its gotten pretty severe! the truck steers ok and the wobble seems to be isolated to the mechanism just beneath the steering wheel itself. we pulled it this morning and couldnt see anything specific that was broken other than the casing for the clockspring electrical connector!... at the dealer they couldnt find any diagram of internal parts in the steering mechanism that would be servicable and could only offer a new one at $1500... anybody have any experience with similar problem is it likely we can tear it apart and rebuild it ... an alternative is to check a pull-a-part lot for a replacement but is there a good chance it will have a similar problem.... parrot33 at hotmail dot com .

Replies:

From : tom lawrence

and the wobble seems to be isolated to the mechanism just beneath the steering wheel itself. a likely cause of this is wear in the u-joints of the intermediate shaft. this is the shaft that runs from the bottom of the steering column through the engine compartment to the steering box. grab ahold of the intermediate shaft and see if you can twist it back and forth a little with the steering wheel locked or someone holding it. if you feel any wobble then youve found your problem. .