loose steering

[dave p]

my steering seems loose, when going down a straight road the steering wheel is 1-16 to the left and 1-16 to the right. steering wheel is centered perfect. can any thing be done to tighten it up? have had it aligned once at dealer. any comments would be apreciated. dave p :cool: :cool:

[Paintdude]

Most of us complain about the steering rattle..Not looseness er,play..

how many miles on your truck? did you ever notice the steering rattle while turning?

My best guess would be it is the steering rattle problem and needs the upper bearing fix..Just a best guess..

hope this helps..


Why, oh why did Gm go with such cheesy steering boxes on all thier new trucks, 99 4 by 4`s and up?

[TC]

I just had my truck in for alignment today at 39,000 miles. My steering wheel was off center to the left about 1/8th turn after I hit a dirt bank with the right front wheel real hard last week avoiding a road grader.

Anyway, nothing was broken, but the tech asked me to look at the suspension. The steering rod on the right side is worn almost to the point of needing to be replaced. This allows the wheel to move from side-to-side some. I will probably just run it some more until it gets worse before I tackle it. They also re-centered the steering wheel.

You may want to get under the truck and look for movement while someone gently turns the steering wheel from side to side.

[LA-DMAX]

Mine is also sloppy. I have 15000 miles and have wondered if this is normal????

[Maverick]

Dave P,
I just had the idler and pitman arms replaced on mine. The center link looked good yet. This was around 98,000. Had it aligned also. It is better now. What kind of roads do you mostly travel? How many miles?

[GMFAN70]

I had the steering rattle and a very definite feeling of looseness in the steering. Lube kit didn't help but had the bearing upgrade done last week. Major improvement!! No more rattle and all the looseness is gone.

I showed the Service Manager the Techlink article and he agreed to the warranty work without question. Many thanks to forum members for all the great info!!