Steering wheel off-center after wheeling. Again. Drag link to blame?

[Bonanza]

I went wheeling, and once again when I got back to the road, the steering wheel is about a half-hour rotation clockwise. This seems to happen a lot, and it's getting frustrating. It's insanely easy to fix, of course, but I get paranoid it's the tie rod collar coming undone. I'm going to align it and use bolt-check on the collars to try and figure out what keeps allowing that to unsettle.

Anyone else have this issue? If so, will a new drag link with a better adjustment collar be the fix?

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[j.o.y.ride]

impossible to know what is coming loose over the internet. get it set back up and use a paint pen on all the parts that could be to blame. then next time you notice it, see what got out of line with the original marks.

you could be having one thing loosen and then tighten another to fix it which will cause other issues if its happening. like if it is the tie rod to blame and you're fixing it by adjusting the drag link.

 

[frost]

I went wheeling, and once again when I got back to the road, the steering wheel is about a half-hour rotation clockwise. This seems to happen a lot, and it's getting frustrating. It's insanely easy to fix, of course, but I get paranoid it's the tie rod collar coming undone. I'm going to align it and use bolt-check on the collars to try and figure out what keeps allowing that to unsettle.

Anyone else have this issue? If so, will a new drag link with a better adjustment collar be the fix?

I have the exact same issue. I'm running 38" tires, 4.5" RK lift and stock steering. I'm wondering if the stock pitman arm is skipping splines? Just a theory and I could be wrong but if wheeling hard and cranking on the steering wheel, I wonder if the force against the pitman arm causes it to rotate on the splines a bit. If so, when the tires get back to center, the steering wheel will be off a bit. just an idea and could be totally wrong.

Otherwise it would be the draglink being forced out of adjustment but my collars are very tight and I don't see movement off the marks... Would love to figure this out as well

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