Weird steering

[David Bongo <dbongo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to everyone (well, mainly Joel B.) for the steering suggestions.

Just for clarification, the sound the truck makes when steering is
basically the same sound made when you turn the wheel too far to one
side or the other.  It's maybe half as loud.  Another carrier noticed
and said that on her late-model Mercury wagon that was bad news.  (She
didn't remember if it was her pump or steering box that went bad.)

I checked the belt today, and it's not loose, but it could be
tightened.  I'll try to do that tomorrow.  Work and weather permitting
(we get our daily PM thunderstorms here now.)  Hopefully that's all it
is.

I didn't do the steering conversion, but I did talk to the guy that
did.  He can't imagine what's wrong.  I looked at the steering assembly
today, and it looked good.  Everything seems solid (I tried to shake the
box to see if it was mounted properly, and the whole truck shook, the
box didn't budge.)  Nothing seems worn, etc.  I'm going to double-check
everything, but I expect it'll all test out OK.  I'm just at a loss for
the steering anomoly.  I'm going to check the length of the tie rod and
see if that's changing at all.  Maybe when the alignment was done the
mechanic forgot to tighten the clamping screws on the tie rod so it's
changing in length?  (I know that's weak, but it's all I got.)

Thanks,

Dave