Loose steering 97 rodeo - cause?

The steering on my 97 Rodeo has been getting very loose and I've developed a fairly annoying pull to the right. This is very annoying on a windy day, especially if it whips back and forth. I'm starting to worry if one day the steering will go loose altogether and I'll find myself off the right side of the road.

Is loose steering a normal symptom of old age or could there be some problem causing it. I've checked the idler arm and it seems sturdy enough. Would some of this play be fixed by changing out bushings?

If you don't know what you're looking at, you need to have it inspected. You could have badly worn tie rods, ball joints, idler arm or wheel bearings. Any of these if left to wear out, could cause catastrophic failure and if moving down the road at the time could cause a serious wreck.

I have seen tie rods come apart as well as wheel bearings that seize, super heat the spindle and then you loose a wheel. Ball joints that break are not a pretty picture either.

My Rodeo was doing this when the ball joints went out. Expensive replacement if you have someone else do the work, otherwise, they're not too terribly difficult if you do them yourself. But you'd want to replace all 4 if they've never been done before, 12yrs is a long time for the originals.

Need to make sure that's what it is first though.

If your wheel bearings have never been repacked, you're gonna want to do those too. They WILL seize up and that's not a good picture.

Would any of this explain looseness when the engine is off and no power steering? Are there parts that should be replaced regardless at 150K?

I repacked the front hubs this past Saturday. I also rotated the tires while I was at it. It made a big difference. The truck no longer pulls to the right at all. In fact, it will drift to the left if the road is sloped that way. I do have an slight intermittent shimmy at around 40mph. I think the tires need rebalanced.

Anyways the steering is still loose, but at least it isn't pulling hard to the right anymore. I'll have to get the front end checked out by someone soon.

Well, I finally got around to taking my truck to the shop. I was fully expecting repairs costing $1000+. They called me and told me everything on the front end was tight and the tech was wondering why I brought the truck in. After I informed him the steering was way loose, he did a $30 adjustment and the steering is no longer loose. I should have got this done a lot sooner.