Loose Steering Questions

[2500HD4x4]

My 1998 2500 4x4 has a decent amount of slop in the steering. I jacked up one side of the vehicle, leaving the other side on the ground. Locked the steering wheel in place. Then grabbing the front and rear of the wheel in the air, and rotated it back and forth to see how much play was in it. The repair manual said to start inspecting and replacing things if the play was more than 0.10 inches. I have roughly an inch or so of play (10 times the specified amount!).

When rotating the wheel back and forth, I can see movement in the ball studs on the relay rod. One at each connection of the tie rod to the relay rod, one from the idler arm to the relay rod, and one from the pitman arm to the relay rod. Chevy says they will only sell entire pieces w/ new ball studs in them, i.e. whole pitman arm, or whole idler arm, etc. That is more money than I would like to spend.

Do any of y'all know if I can only buy the ball studs? Would I need more than a 2-3 jaw puller to get the job done?

Also for future reference, how difficult is it to replace the ball joints in this truck?

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[2000CAYukon]

Originally Posted by 2500HD4x4

My 1998 2500 4x4 has a decent amount of slop in the steering. I jacked up one side of the vehicle, leaving the other side on the ground. Locked the steering wheel in place. Then grabbing the front and rear of the wheel in the air, and rotated it back and forth to see how much play was in it. The repair manual said to start inspecting and replacing things if the play was more than 0.10 inches. I have roughly an inch or so of play (10 times the specified amount!).

When rotating the wheel back and forth, I can see movement in the ball studs on the relay rod. One at each connection of the tie rod to the relay rod, one from the idler arm to the relay rod, and one from the pitman arm to the relay rod. Chevy says they will only sell entire pieces w/ new ball studs in them, i.e. whole pitman arm, or whole idler arm, etc. That is more money than I would like to spend.

Do any of y'all know if I can only buy the ball studs? Would I need more than a 2-3 jaw puller to get the job done?

Also for future reference, how difficult is it to replace the ball joints in this truck?

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks!

You need to replace the part (or parts) that are bad. This includes idler arm, pitman arm, tie rod ends and center link. You can buy these from any major auto parts store.

I like to use a pickle fork to break the idler arm and tie rod ends loose. They do make a puller. The Pitman arm comes off easier with a pitman arm puller (although, I have seen people beat it off).

The ball joints are rivoted so you will need to drill out the old rivots to replace them.

Many front end shops will do a front end inspection and it might be a good idea to get one to see what parts they say are worn out.

//2000CAYukon

[jveik]

yeah... its kinda a pain to replace the old ball joints, unless of course you go get a 25 dollar craftsman angle grinder or something to hack into the old rivets... i believe the new ones bolt in instead

[wafrederick]

Do not use a pickle fork,I call them "boot rippers".For getting the tie rod ends off,use a big hammer and hit sthe side of the spindle and should come off with 2-3 blows with a hammer.There is an easier way to get the rivet out for the balljoints,oxy/acetelyne torch.Only common front end parts that go bad a lot on 1988 and up Chevrolet/GMC pickups are the pitman arm and idler arm.Get the lifetime warentee ones from Carquest and stay away from AutoZone(really called AutoJunk).Carquest sells the lifetime warentee ones but they are a little bit more money.