Jimmy Steering/Suspension

[Dan W]

My 1999 Jimmy has 115,000 km and for the last 25K the steering wheel has been off centre(about 11:00 tracking straight). It does not pull either way and has had no accidents since new. New tie rod ends and ball joints at 95K with aligment made no difference, and new tires with alignment check again at 100K, still no difference. I could hear and feel a clunk coming from below the floor pan while parking that I determined was from the torsion bars which seemed dry and maybe had not enough tension. I gave each side plenty of fresh grease and a half turn of the tension bolt and the clunk went away. O.K. now my question, would adding more tension to one side or the other affect the centre positioning of the steering wheel? If not, does anyone have any idea why my GM dealer and local garage cannot seem to get the steering wheel to centre? Thanks for any help.

[CanukGMC]

Originally Posted by Dan W

My 1999 Jimmy has 115,000 km and for the last 25K the steering wheel has been off centre(about 11:00 tracking straight). It does not pull either way and has had no accidents since new. New tie rod ends and ball joints at 95K with aligment made no difference, and new tires with alignment check again at 100K, still no difference. I could hear and feel a clunk coming from below the floor pan while parking that I determined was from the torsion bars which seemed dry and maybe had not enough tension. I gave each side plenty of fresh grease and a half turn of the tension bolt and the clunk went away. O.K. now my question, would adding more tension to one side or the other affect the centre positioning of the steering wheel? If not, does anyone have any idea why my GM dealer and local garage cannot seem to get the steering wheel to centre? Thanks for any help.

Mine is the same way, mine even tends to wander a bit on bumps, some days it's fine, some days it's just wacky. I have a 98 with 115000km's on it. If you do a quick search there's some info out there about this. Some say you can have your steering box adjusted (but with our low mileages I don't think the box would be worn out unless something was seriously wrong in it) and others say the rag joint in the intermediate shaft (from the firewall to the steering box) wears out making play in the wheel, the play is then translated into a off centered steering wheel to the left or right (depending on the angle of the road).

I have yet to figure mine out, the front end seems fine, I had it certified when I bought it and the "to the right" wheel was like that before and after the certification. I had the dealer "fix it" and the wheel came back to me the EXACT way I gave it to them, go figure. I have yet to pull my intermediate shaft to inspect it for wear, it's just so damned burried in there, between the ABS box and lines, the ECM, the vortec intake box and the A\C it's burried badly. Sorry I don't have an "exact remedy" hopefully some of that helps.