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Yeah I know what your talking about. It basically acts a bearing point for the junk bearing in the saginaw steering gear. I have a new one on this truck and it was sloppy out of the box, not terrible but noticeable. I probably have 1 to 2 inches of deadband at the steering wheel, and this shimmy is no where near a death wobble, more annoying than anything. I can see where one of these would help some of the wonder or sloppy steering issues.

I've been reading a lot of these threads about fuel pressure at the inlet of the VP44, min of 5psi or 10 psi, or 14psi, or 16psi, etc. I think the approach that has been taken that more inlet pressure translates into more flow through the pump is not linear. This is because the the VP44 has a displacement pump built into itself. This can easily be demonstrated by running a lift pump to the VP44 without the truck running and dumping the return to the pump into a bucket, practically no flow from the return of the VP44 without the engine running, doesn't matter if it's 5psi or 15 psi. Only when the VP is running will you see a good flow out of the return. The return has a pressure relief valve set at about 10 psi with a rather small area for the return fuel to flow through and only a certain volume of return fuel is capable flowing through this small port. Pressure and flow are NOT directly proportionate, meaning you can have all kinds of pressure and no flow, just as you can have a lot of flow with very little pressure. It would only stand to reason that any fuel (except for the small amount that leaks past the displacement pump in the VP44) that flows through the VP44 is controlled by rpm of the VP44. Even if you change the inlet pressure from 5 psi to 15 psi there should be very little flow change out of the VP44. Such as if you had 1 gpm return flow at 5 psi inlet pressure at 850 rpm, I would venture that in the same scenario at a 15 psi inlet pressure you may only see an increase of maybe 10 percent in the return line. End result being no matter what you try to push into a VP44 with stock lines or 1/2" lines at 5 psi or 15 psi, the built in displacement pump and the small (less than 1/8th inch) overflow valve is what really determines the flow through a VP44. Remember this style pump was used on the VW's with NO lift pump only a couple of parts being different in the VP housing and they run next to forever. I think most of the problems that have been had with the VP44 can be attributed to the VP trying to pull fuel through a dead lift pump, matters not what kind, stock, intank, fass, or whatever, that causes insufficient flow and a vacuum state in the VP that causes, cavitation, which combined creates a serious lack of cooling and lubrication trashing the pump. This issue could have been solved by having a check valve that would allow the VP to pull fuel around a dead lift pump unrestricted. Their are other design issues such as the advance piston on the bottom with poor at best lubrication and no flow through to move particulates along an out of the piston housing that creates excessive wear and accumulation, but thats a story for a different time. --- Update to the previous post... Also you have to take into account the change in area of the lines from the inlet to the pressure relief valve. Shrink the area for a given flow = an increase in pressure. Meaning your taking the voulume of the inlet line, 7mm stock i think, on pushing it with the VP44 internal pump through the pressure regulator's 2mm opening. So in theory a 5psi inlet pressure could easily translate into 14 psi at the ball of the pressure regulator opening due to the decrease in area.

Looked at several track bars, TRW, Napa, Oreilly house brand, Advance house brand, and a new Moog. The Moog appeared to be a new style of ball joint, it had a small tag in with the castle nut and cotter pin that read:"The stud torque on this track bar has been increased. This increase is a direct result of an improvement in socket design, which has increased part performance and longevity."You could only move the stud with the aid of a wrench. The rest of them could be moved by hand and could be compressed on the ball stud anywhere from 1/8" to 3/8" - all junk.Put the bar on and made a big difference in steering play over a new Duralast with the compressible ball stud. Still didn't fix the wobble - shimmy at ~62-67 mph though it did make it less noticeable. I still have both tie rods ends and the steering link to drag link joint that could be changed although there is no >.005" play in any of them. Of course you have the shocks, steering stabilizer, sway bay ends.........seems there is no end to the 'could be this'.Probably should leave well enough alone. It rides good, drives good, especially for a straight axle truck, except for the shimmy, which seems to be road surface dependent also. Could also be the A/T tires on the front, I hate 'em but thats the way I got it and their almost new.

New to the forum, been doing a lot of reading since I bought a dead 98.5 cab chassis with an 11 foot service bed. Got her running soon enough and have most of the bugs worked out of her but I am troubled by a wobble - shimmy at about 64 to 68 MPH. Have replaced most all front end components (ball joints steering box - way bad, and a couple of the steering link joints link joints) as well as the the track bar twice. It is from Autozone. The first one I threw on a few weeks ago and didn't think anymore about it, had other know bad parts to replace. All said and done everything I've found to be bad has been replaced, some obvious, some checked with a dial indicator and jig. So.... this shimmy - wobble will not go away, got back in under the truck again to see the track bar moving vertically in the ball stud, more than obvious, 1/4" or more. Pull the track bar out, feels tight, but taking a set of channel locks an pressing down on the ball stud it appears to be spring loaded. Sent my boy off to get another one, he brings me back one that appears to spring loaded also, not as much available compression though, maybe 1/8" or a little more. My question to the forum is: Am i wrong in thinking that this ball joint should in no way, shape, or form, have any play what so ever or am I missing something? Thanks, I'll update my sig now. --- Update to the previous post... Toe, 1.5* Caster 3.5*,3.4* Thinking might be control arm bushings, look good, no slop while prying? Thoughts? --- Update to the previous post... Whoops, .15* toe, not 1.5* WOW!