99 Burb Steering and Suspension Help

[moondog1]

Hey everyone!
Well I bought another burb. Got a 99 with too many miles, 200k, k2500, 4x4, 5.7, I'm struggling for trying to describe how it handles and steers. It needs tires and brakes which I'm working on.

I'm going to swap the tires on my other k2500 burb to see if it eliminates any problems on my new burb. Same size and they are new and balanced. I know it needs sway bar linkage. They are loose. It seems to sit and stay straight in a straight away but in a corner it has a lot of resistance in the steering. Almost like a rack and pinion setup or severely towed in but sketchy. Is this the Evo getting me trouble and I just don't know it? My other burb is a 95 so no Evo experience.

I want to try to fix this myself. I may try to measure and see if it's ball parked aligned. I haven't check to see if the bearings in the front have play yet either.

I guess to summarize my post if there are some suggestions on what to start to look at I'm all ears. Thanks!!!

Lastly, I cant shift the shifter into the 1 position and it's very stiff in all other positions. Any tips where to start?

 

[moondog1]

Side note, the 5.7 vortec feels SO GOOD compared to the 5.7 TBI.

 

[Schurkey]

Inspect EVERYTHING--ball joints, control arm bushings, tie rod ends, shocks, sway bar mounts and end-links, idler arm and Pitman arm, and wheel bearings/hubs. See if the truck actually has EVO steering. And make sure the rag joint isn't totaled...like they all are.

For that matter, you might as well look at the rear leaf spring bushings, shackles, and mounts; and the U-bolts.

Swapping tires is probably a good idea.

AFTER all the parts are verified to be good/usable, you could check the alignment. It's pointless to dick with the alignment if the suspension/steering has worn parts.

 

[GoToGuy]

You live in rust belt area? Look at shift rods and fittings. Dry, rust buildup, loose, if every fitting joint or link has 1/16, 1/8, or 1/4 of inch play it all adds up.

 

[stutaeng]

Lastly, I cant shift the shifter into the 1 position and it's very stiff in all other positions. Any tips where to start?

The lever won't go into 1? Never heard of that happening, unless the neutral safety switch was messed around with and installed out of alignment? Are your other gears accurate? Maybe try disconnecting the shift interlock solenoid little ball joint. It's under the lower panel by the steering wheel, near the shift lever. There's a little ball joint and the one on the right side is the solenoid. Looks like this:

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[moondog1]

You live in rust belt area? Look at shift rods and fittings. Dry, rust buildup, loose, if every fitting joint or link has 1/16, 1/8, or 1/4 of inch play it all adds up.

I live in GA but I'm not sure where this truck is from. I will inspect thoroughly when I get my sway bar links in.

The lever won't go into 1? Never heard of that happening, unless the neutral safety switch was messed around with and installed out of alignment? Are your other gears accurate? Maybe try disconnecting the shift interlock solenoid little ball joint. It's under the lower panel by the steering wheel, near the shift lever. There's a little ball joint and the one on the right side is the solenoid. Looks like this:

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The other gears seem accurate per their position on the column, it's as if when you shift from 2-1 it's at a wall and isn't going any farther into 1. The trans shifts through all the gears great so far. Luckily I have another 4L80E burb to crawl under and see if something looks to be installed incorrectly.

The whole shifter is very stiff though, lots of effort to move it. I will unhook the cable and see how it shifts at the transmission if I can figure that out and start inspecting from there.



Thanks for the help!

 

[stutaeng]

Sounds good! The only thing inside the actual transmission that offers resistance to moving the lever is the rooster comb/detent spring on the manual shift shaft...

 

[Pinger]

It seems to sit and stay straight in a straight away but in a corner it has a lot of resistance in the steering. Almost like a rack and pinion setup or severely towed in but sketchy. Is this the Evo getting me trouble and I just don't know it? My other burb is a 95 so no Evo experience.

EVO goes heavy immediately off-centre once the truck is travelling at a few mph. If that's what you have and it's still super light at parking speeds then probably just EVO doing its thing.

 

[wezmykat]

the spring that holds the shifter in place on my suburban was broken, like in half, and that half fell into the column, then i decided to fix it and while trying to take the second broken half out as seen in the video, it too fell somewhere "in there" i got two other springs from the scrap yard, one from a 89 k2500 and one from a 93 c1500, the first one was just too massive and the latter, much smaller, looked like my broken one, well putting it back in the hole was an hour of swearing and twisting with different tools, you actually have to bend the spring almost 90deg to get it to go in, and while doing it its extremely easy to have it fall into the column also
long story short i now have 2 broken pieces in there and its also harder to shift, plus it always gets kind of stuck at the 3 position but then keeps going down to 1 if you force it. so the fix is to disassemble the entire column, which is a huge pain in the rear and i just live with it, the steering is fine.
this could be your problem, debris "down there"

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[Schurkey]

the spring that holds the shifter in place on my suburban was broken, like in half, and that half fell into the column, then i decided to fix it and while trying to take the second broken half out as seen in the video, it too fell somewhere "in there"...
...this could be your problem, debris "down there"

If it can fall "down" into the column...

...it can fall "up" out of the column.

Pull the steering wheel, then the column out of the vehicle--used to be just a hush panel, two or four bolts under the dash, an electrical connector or three, and the bolt holding the lower shaft to the column. Don't forget the lil' cable that controls the shift indicator. Newer vehicles have the air bag connector, and probably don't have the shift-indicator cable.

Anyway, with the wheel off, and the column out of the car, turn it upside down and shake, shake, shake.