Quote Originally Posted by Muledeercrazy2 View Post
I have the BD diesel sector shaft/ steering stabilizer. When Dodge looked at my truck, they said there was some play in it (not sure where), but that it wouldnt be causing my grief since I just change the steering gear. I looked at a video yesterday showing how much play is in the stock steering gear new (without the stabilizer), and i am wondering if they are wrong.

Very little play in the track bar, I guess I could have put a dial on it but I dropped the truck off at a mechanic today.
Any side play in the sector shaft tells a person, that the DSS (Sector Shaft Stabilizer) is not installed correctly. Zero side play when installed correctly.
Lots of things in the Ram front end can cause play/ wander. The steering gear is not always the problem. Easy way to eliminate the gear as the problem on a Ram. Steering must be centered to test (heading straight down the road) as there is a high spot on the center of all steering gear box's. (Rack&pinion has no high spot) Test off of center and there will be play. With the truck idling go under the front end and reach up with your left hand and grab the coupler were it goes into the steering gear. This takes the intermediate shaft out of the equation. Now rotate the input shaft back and forth and watch the pitman arm. If the pitman activates as soon as you rotate the input to the left and right, then the gear is working as it should. and your play is elsewhere in the front end. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people who try to adjust the steering gear. An over adjusted steering gear will not activate the pitman arm immediately. Manual gears are adjustable in the vehicle. Power steering gears are NOT!! A hair over adjustment on a power gear will cause your vehicle to wander down the road, as the sector teeth are now binding in the piston. Your alignment can not over come the binding hence the wander down the road with the driver having to over correct all the time.