Excursion steering pull

My usual go to guy is out of town and seems rather frustrated with this problem, so of course I should try to tackle it myself.

Since I picked up the excursion it does this fun thing where it tries to steer opposite of the direction you're turning the wheel for the first 5-6 miles of the day. It's more pronounced on uphill left turns, but it's there at most any speed or direction at the beginning of the journey.

It's not "me getting used to it", it just stops trying to pull after everything gets warmed up.

The tires are old, good amount of tread, but easily 10 years old. I suspect they have something to do with it, but not everything. They're supposed to be getting replaced, but I haven't heard anything in a while about the new ones coming in.

My mechanic seems to think front U joints. I can't find any similar symptoms, or even a tear down of the front U joints online. It's only been a month now I've been waiting for him to have an opening to try replacing that.

Before I go am open up the parts cannon, what other things should I be looking at?

The shocks have supposedly been changed before but they look old and rough. It's hard to tell if the shocks are shot or the roads are just E36 M3. The steering stabilizer looks original, but I have this crazy idea that the shock on it is dying and that's why it feels better after it warms up.

It's got new calipers pads and rotors on all 4 corners, that don't feel sticky or bad, and braking really doesn't affect the pull. I do have a bad wheel speed sensor according to FORSCAN and the ABS light on the dash though. Pedal feel SUCKS though. I wouldn't trust this in an emergency stop, let alone hauling a load, but I've said that about every Ford from this era I've ever driven. 

This isn't just steering wobble like so very many forum complaints I've read. No problems in straight lines, no problems tracking straight down the road, at least not with even air in all the tires. 

I'm just getting sick of waiting and would like to start feeling more comfortable using this thing, the most expensive vehicle I've ever owned, that just moves between driveways currently. 

I'm not sure I understand the symptoms you're describing.  When you say it tries to turn the opposite direction what do you mean?  You turn the wheel left and the truck goes right or the wheel is harder to turn than it should be so it feels like it's fighting?

I came across this a while back.  I haven't had a chance to dig in to my Ex to see if I'm having that problem, but at least it's a good explanation of the modality of the failure:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWOcFylJbsM

APEowner said:

I'm not sure I understand the symptoms you're describing.  When you say it tries to turn the opposite direction what do you mean?  You turn the wheel left and the truck goes right or the wheel is harder to turn than it should be so it feels like it's fighting?

I come up on a left hand sweeper, and turn the wheel left to follow. Say hand at 12 to hand at 9 on the wheel. While going through the turn, the steering wheel and the steering wheels will try to pull it back to the right, like from 9-10 on the wheel. It will do this through the turn until I straighten the wheel out again. 

But it stops after about 6 miles. It's 5.5 miles to Lowes, it'll be shifty until I'm on my way home. 

Locked up brake caliper?

stiff joint in the steering shaft. 

RevRico said:

APEowner said:

I'm not sure I understand the symptoms you're describing.  When you say it tries to turn the opposite direction what do you mean?  You turn the wheel left and the truck goes right or the wheel is harder to turn than it should be so it feels like it's fighting?

I come up on a left hand sweeper, and turn the wheel left to follow. Say hand at 12 to hand at 9 on the wheel. While going through the turn, the steering wheel and the steering wheels will try to pull it back to the right, like from 9-10 on the wheel. It will do this through the turn until I straighten the wheel out again. 

But it stops after about 6 miles. It's 5.5 miles to Lowes, it'll be shifty until I'm on my way home. 

Is it a steady pull are does the steering wheel kind of dance with repeated tugs?

Move the front tires side to sde first.

Get a scan tool and see whether it has a center adjustment in the traction control.

Strange. Those had a habit of eating up ball joints and axle u joints, but I dont understand what would make it consistently go away after a certain distance. You said you have a bad wheel speed sensor, is the abs or traction control light on? If so I would think then they are deactivated. If the light isn't on then the system is trying to work with bad inputs. I would pull the abs or traction control fuse and see if the problem stays the same. Another thought I had was crappy power steering fluid that is causing problems that gets better when it gets up to temperature. Flush and replace and see what happens. 

If that doesn't fix it jack the front end up, pop the outer tie rod ends off, turn each spindle back and forth, and spin the hubs in different steering positions while feeling for tight spots.

Another thought I had, those had hubs that either lock or be vacuum activated.  I wonder if the problem could be something there, or something basically putting it in 4wd, it will definitely try to pull back straight if you are in 4wd on dry pavement. Start it up in park with the front wheels off the ground and see if you can spin them freely.

In reply to gearheadmb :

My bet is this. I have no idea how the transfer case works on these, but it could but this. Popping back into 2wd when warm. 

The original vacuum hubs have been swapped for manual hubs. 

I have an abs light for the speed sensor. 

My only codes I've seen are the front right wheel speed sensor, battery voltage too low, and there are 2 related to 4wd system not activating. The only code throwing a light is the wheel sensor. I use FORSCAN on my laptop, I haven't tried torq pro yet or any official scanner. 

There's no pull under under braking, it's soft as hell, but straight. 

I'll try to get the front up in the air and see if it's locked in for some reason, when it's not 99F or storming. 

Power steering fluid is on my list of stuff I want to change over.

How can I describe it better.. I can steer into a turn and it will be smooth until about halfway through, then the wheel starts pulling, almost like a stuttering action, and it smooths out again by turn exit.

my initial thought was wheel bearings, until your second explanation, then I thought caster. the 5 mile change makes me think low tire psi that heats up?

My best guess is tires.  I'm thinking you've either got a hub locked or a tire issue.  Long shot would be steering box.  I'd start with checking to make sure you can spin the axles easily and then rotate the tires.  Or just replace them since you know they're junk anyway.

I bet the steering gearbox is on its way out too. 

yupididit said:

I bet the steering gearbox is on its way out too. 

They were a problem on those.  I think Ford had three different versions before they had one that lasted.  I had three of them replaced under warranty on my '01 F250.  I think I put a total six of them in over the 280k miles I had it.  I'm not sure the symptoms match however.

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

Locked up brake caliper?

 

This would be my bet.  Superduties have known issues with brake slide pins.  Since it is a cheap/easy repair it might be worth trying first.   

Old grease locking up a hub partially? Warming it up releases it? 

I had a mystery steering pull a while back. Just a constant pull to the right no matter what. Had several shops try to align it, and I even tried aligning it myself too.

Turned out to be a steel band near the edge of one of the tires had let go, so one tire was slightly wedge-shaped instead of a perfect flat cylindrical shape. Replacing the tires cured the issue instantly without alignment. 

Not confident it's causing your issue, but you mentioned the tires are old so its something to consider. 

Also do you set the parking brake? It might take a few miles to fully release if it's rusty. 

For S&Gs I would rotate the tires. 

dean1484 said:

For S&Gs I would rotate the tires. 

Yup.  Start with this.

It was the driver's side front u joint.

When I hear U joint, I think driveshaft. This was the axle stub.

Got it up on the lift, pulled the wheels, unlocked steering, and Dave showed me that the passenger side was spinning fine while the wheel was turned but the driver side was stopped, not spinning the hub at all.

Apparently it was really berked up cause it took him a few hours to get the old one out.

But while I was there I made use of his tire machine and put on 4 new hankook dynapro at2s. 

Handle much much better now, and isn't actively trying to kill me. The real test will be tomorrow morning from a cold start, but the ride home was considerably better than the ride out.