wandering steering at speed,300tdi

Driving along my local dual carraigeway every morning I get a slight wander,a veer in the steering at speeds of 55 plus.At first I put this down to the fact that the road carries all the HGV traffic down country and is grooved to match their wheelbase - when driving lorries myself I have experienced being stuck in the ruts. But it happened elsewhere,so I looked at steering parts and wheelbearings and tyres,all seemingly OK. It seems to happen when the wheels hit some kind of minor lump in the road.Looked in books,searched ,read old mags....

....and what came up was the suggestion that when all the above failed to right the problem, the swivel pre load is at fault. I see that this issue has come up more than a few times before, but before I persue this further,has anyone any knowledge or experience of this situation beyond what has been said before,or "fix your pre loads" ?

Last year I was in the UK, drove Pembroke to Reading and when I was on the M4 found the ruts in the show lane, we don't have them in Ireland. Anyway this spring I fitted a polybush kit and soon after I had to take the Disco to Ashcrofts in Luton, when on the M4 and in the ruts in the slow lane I had no problems.

So I would suggest a polybush kit might fix your problem, after doing my Disco it feels like a new Land Rover on the road.

Theres a thought....thanks mate

After following up on various advice,had done a lot of checks but problem remained.

Until 2 nights ago when driving at 45ish on a straight section,luckily,of a narrow country lane,the front wheels began to veer wildly from one side to the other with no response to steering wheel,couldnt steer into it,braking made the effect worse,so it was a case of just let it roll to a halt......bumping off of the banked edges of the lane,one side then the other....a little worrying.

Once the vehicle had stopped a look under gave no clues and steering began to respond slackly to the wheel so limped back to a nearby friends.

In the morning a through going over showed nothing untoward except a minor wheelbearing slackness on one side that I knew about and wouldnt explain the incident. I had to sit down and rethink and eventually thought "that drop arm on the bottom of the PAS box isnt showing much thread..."

.....and thats where it was, the nut had unwound taking the lock washer with it in such a way as it appeared to be still locked. The arm had been bouncing up and down on the shaft, in and out of contact and so giving an intermittant fault that could have been very nasty.

Knocked the lock washer down,heaved the nut as tight as I could with a gurt big old spanner and re-locked with a fresh bit of metal. I really need to take it apart and check for wear damage and then get a socket on it and torque it up properly. But some rotten sod has nicked my 3-quarter socket set and the few I have left dont fit (go buy a new one !) and the 97 jap "PFTA" is in for test today....finally. If it starts after pressure washing the underneath of the engine and rest of truck since loose sump liberally oiled it oil.