Bumpsteer

[weo38]

I have noticed that my truck has quite a bit of what I call bumpsteer. When I hit bumps the truck seems to want to drive it self. Then yesterday I had to brake hard and the steering wheel gyrated a lot as the truck was under braking power. Could this be a bad tie rod or some other steering component that is worn? 05 Silverado Z71 53000 miles. Thanks, if anybody needs clarification let me know.

[ukrkoz]

Originally Posted by weo38

I have noticed that my truck has quite a bit of what I call bumpsteer. When I hit bumps the truck seems to want to drive it self. Then yesterday I had to brake hard and the steering wheel gyrated a lot as the truck was under braking power. Could this be a bad tie rod or some other steering component that is worn? 05 Silverado Z71 53000 miles. Thanks, if anybody needs clarification let me know.

you have the infamous "death wobble". you wait on it - it'll become real bad! similar to flutter on 1st supersonic jets - virtually shaking truck apart.
i had mine fixed some 5 mths ago. culprits were:
idler and driver side hub bearing. also known culprits are pitman and trailing rod.
unless you have rack and pinion, then i'd look into hubs only and check on tierod ends.

[maxwedge]

As mentioned something is either loose in the steering or suspension, get this attended to ASAP. I assume this is a rack and pinion truck, if not post back for additional recommendations.

[weo38]

How do I tell if it is rack and pinion? Changed sriver side hub about 2 months ago. What should I look at nextfor the culprit?

[ukrkoz]

Originally Posted by weo38

How do I tell if it is rack and pinion? Changed sriver side hub about 2 months ago. What should I look at nextfor the culprit?

rack-n-pinion is usually attached to the firewall and looks like a good size pipe with hydraulic lines coming into it from the power steering pump and 2 rods coming out ot it. rods are partially covered by ribbed dust boots. that's your tierods. on either end of those is a tierod end - and it is attached to the steering knuckle.
paralellogram steering is more complex. you have tierod ends attached to steering knuckle. those are attached to trailing rod/arm, which is a fat ass rod running across the whole front, connecting tierod ends. trailing rod has 2 connections - one to pitman and one to idler. pitman is ball joint type arm connected to the steering gear box, which is at the very end of your steering shaft. idler is just another ball joint type arm maintaining position of trailing rod when it's turned by pitman/gear box.
on a truck, you can just pop the hood open and see all that.
1. suspend a given wheel up in the air. try to move the wheel back and for like as if turning it. any play in it - it's your tierod ends.
2. do the same, but in vertical direction. any play or clunck - it's your hub bearing.
3. jackstand the front securily. get a helper. if you have paralellogram steering with idler and pitman, unlock the steering wheel, get under the truck so that you can see idler/pitman/trailing rod, and ask helper to sharply turn steering wheel left, then right. is there any cluncks heard? watch rubber boots on idler and pitman. can you see any delay or play between idler/pitman movement and trailing rod? in my case, there was clunck coming out of idler and i could see a delay between the 2 - idler and trailing rod. does not have to be much to cause much trouble.
you must take care of this asap. i am not kidding you. 1st time i had death wobble, i thought the whole freaking front end will fall apart. truck waas jumping up and down and sidewise like as if on bad hydraulics. and i had about 20 of those instances, and no fun it was at all. scared the heck out of me.

[weo38]

Thanks, I will respond back when I do the checks and hopefully fix the problem.

[weo38]

Well checked out my truck over the weekend and found the sources of my "Death wobble". It is both the idler arm and pitman arm. They both have what I would call excessive play. How hard are these to replace and can i do the work in truck meaning not removing any additional parts to do the work?

[ukrkoz]

Originally Posted by weo38

Well checked out my truck over the weekend and found the sources of my "Death wobble". It is both the idler arm and pitman arm. They both have what I would call excessive play. How hard are these to replace and can i do the work in truck meaning not removing any additional parts to do the work?

1. sorry you have all that to fix
2. glad you found the culprits
3. you can postpone the repairs by adding steering shock, but it will not compensate complitely
4. idler is quite easy. get truck on ramps, chock rear wheels, and just yank it out. you'll need puller for the job or, like me, just hammer hard on the trailing rod to break it loose at the ball joint. then just take it apart in a vise. you'll need to remove idler arm from the axle.
5. pitman sounds like a JOB to do. haynes says to remove steering gear with pitman and diconnect pitman from it in a vise. it's doable, just you'll have to have hydraulic lines disconnected and that is one thing i have never figured how to do with open end box wrenches - they always spread on the nut and slip.

[ukrkoz]

ok, this should give you a general idea of repairs:

http://www.autozone.com/addVehicleId...1b69cd#hd1-1-2

please, keep in mind that pictures are not quite correct. at least, tierod ends are way different on my 2000 silvie. also, they say not to disconnect steering gear to remove pitman. good luck on that, pitman is covered by subframe.