play in steering once again

[Mark Heiken]

Dealer has been working on the steering rattle and steering play in my rig. Did the shaft lube first. Waste of time. New shaft did help rattle some but did nothing for the play in wheel. Yesterday they put in a new steering gear. Don't know about the rattle yet but the play is worse.

Dealer and several others have checked all front end components. We can find nothing loose. I did a search here and found some good info, but was hoping someone had found THE SOLUTION.

Thanks for the great site to gather info!!!

[Paintdude]

have them install bearing kit 26099860 and follow the instructions..It fixed mine..Good Luck..

the steering box must have a CB or HD on it..

[56Nomad]

Paintdude,

Mine has the HD on it. Dealer did the lube.
Did not work.

Took it back.

Dealer claims he did the new bearing kit. It did
not work. I wish I had seen the part.

It's back at the dealer again. They say the spines are
bad on the steering shaft...... they've ordered
the new shaft.

Stay tuned............ :rolleyes:

[Paintdude]

Sounds like a run around to me. They have to follow the instructions when installing the bearing. I was lucky to have a seasoned mechanic fix mine.Good Luck..

[Mark Heiken]

Hope the shaft fixes yours Nomad. My dealer said it has worked on others. Did help but not cure the rattle in mine. Did nothing for the loosenes in the wheel. New gear made play worse. Service manager is checking with GM about adjustment on new steer box. They seem to think bearring is only for rattle.

[Paintdude]

GM told me that if you replace the steering box you need to install a new bearing in it and torque it to the specs in the instructions. The new bearing must have some type of crush style setting bearing. It takes special tools and a mechanic with experiance, from what I gather.

It fixed mine so far. I am very happy with the repair, after I finally got them to do it like GM and I recommended. It took 3 trips to the dealership.

[Cliffee]

"THE SOLUTION"
The play in youre steering is because the replacement gearboxes are not of the same quality as the production ones. I just went through the same thing. I had a rattle in my steering column that was diognosed as the gear box. After they replaced the gearbox I had lots of play. They replaced it a second time and still lots of play. We then compared it to a new truck on their lot and decided to swap the new truck gearbox into my truck. All play was gone as well as rattle. They admitted that the replacement gearboxes are not as good as the production ones. Isn't that nice?

[ 08-19-2003, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: Cliffee ]

[Mark Heiken]

Thanks Cliffee. The service manager at the dealer is trying to get help from the Chev tech line. The fellow he talks to there said it is a known problem and is looking into it further. Don't realy know yet if this is their way of blowing me off. They know the problem but not the fix??? I'll give your info to the service manager and have him ask about this.

[Cliffee]

If he needs any further proof have him call Thoroughbred Chevrolet (480)-899-0131 in Chandler AZ and ask for Mike Terry in service. Good Luck!