Loose Steering

[Pete@FTR]

Over the past month or so i've noticed my steering wheel has gotten more and more play in it. When i have someone wiggle it, it moves loosely all the way down to the power steering gearbox, but i'm thinking it bay be that in addition to some other things like the u joint.
Has any one else had this/knows how to fix it or has any ideas? Thanks

 

[ivan12]

It's called a rag joint, very common on these cars.

 

[Gold4.6]

I had some play in mine. I pulled off a u-joint from the junk yard and replaced mine. It really helped. My old u-join had the grease seals broken. You might just do what I did, it didn't take bit 15 mins to swap.

 

[Musturd]

Where's this u joint you speak of in the front end ? Rag joint could be warn and ur ball joints and tie rods could be old As well.

 

[Gold4.6]

It's under the dash where the steering column meets the shaft. It's like a size 13 bolt on both sides of the joint. If you watch the shaft in the engine bay and have someone move the steering wheel just enough to feel the play, you can determine if the problem is before the join(steering column), or after the ujoint

 

[Musturd]

Yea I know what ur talking about now lol. I was thinking something else

 

[Gold4.6]

Ooh just reread the post. You know the play goes all the ways down already, just ignore my useless
Info up top

 

[Pete@FTR]

It's called a rag joint, very common on these cars.

Is this what I need? I dont see a specific mustang one on there but it says oem Ford.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rnb-31000

I had some play in mine. I pulled off a u-joint from the junk yard and replaced mine. It really helped. My old u-join had the grease seals broken. You might just do what I did, it didn't take bit 15 mins to swap.

Ill check it out, thanks.

 

[ivan12]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1994-1998-M...Parts_Accessories&hash=item337df43848&vxp=mtr

You can go to a junk yard and see if you can find one that doesn't have any play, they're pretty easy to remove and replace. My old one had a lot of play between the telescoping area and I replaced it with one from a newer v6 I found at pick-your-part which fixed the problem, before that I was able to move my steering wheel about 20 degrees either way and the tires wouldnt move an inch. They also sell some nice aftermarket ones but they get pricey like the flaming river one or Maximum Motorsports shaft which is on my to do list.

 

[the.greg]

I had a ton of steering play on my 98 gt and it was not the rag joint. I never figured it out, but it was 100% not the rag joint so I think maybe my steering rack was the issue?

 

[wildride02gt]

its rare for a steering rack to fail and just have play, usually when they fail they just fail to provice steering assist from the pump.
start bwith the shaft, then check the tie rods.