1990Z71Swede
Newbie
Hello, Gentlemen.
This is my first post, it became longer than I wanted but I´m trying to cram every little bit of info in it at once, to cover all bases.
So I bought this 1990 Z71 Sportside 1500 truck for my Daughter, and when we test drove it we noticed the steering was wonky and did not return to straight by itself.
But we liked the thing and bought it anyway, realizing worst case it needs a new steering box, best case it is just an adjustment issue, or a couple of steering components needing replacement, so no biggie.
So when we got it home, I loosened the locknut on top of the steering box to check the preload and to my surprise I find it backed out quite a bit, in fact I can only turn it about 1/4 turn counterclockwise before it appears to be against a stop. I thought that screw could be removed all together but I guess it is installed from the inside and has some kind of head on it?
Now before I start messing with it I thought I would ask here for guidance. As it is now we can drive the thing but it needs some attention to stay on the road
The symptoms are like this:
No weird sounds from pump or box, steering effort when parking is I suppose normal, AND when doing this the steering wheel is actually returning as normal ACCEPT for the last Half turn, where it gets tight.
Also, sometimes the last quarter turn out to full lock when stationary get´s really hard, as in loss of power steering assist. The truck has obnoxious 275x55/20 wheels which may have something to do with that, but this made me suspect that a steering component other than the steering box itself might be at fault, maybe both? I did get the feeling that if I force it to full lock and back again I can get to full lock with power assist, but then if go the other direction, it has the same symptoms in that direction. Rolling ever so slowly backwards or forwards it is working fine, no loss of power assist at full lock in any direction.
The annoying part is driving in a straight line. it needs constant direction adjustments, does not return to zero/straight by itself and you tend to overcorrect because of the too tight feeling combined with some sloppiness in the first inch or so of steering wheel travel(some of that is probably the ragjoint) but it feels like the steering box both is too tight AND have some play in it at the same time... weird.
So far I´ve ruled out: (sort of)
Upper ball joints, greased them, that made absolutely zero difference.
Lower Right is New, Not replaced by me though so not 100% sure that I can rule that one out, new parts can fail/be faulty too.
Idler arm, greased it and it seems OK.
Tie rods, both sides. Clearly there has been some troubleshooting made by a Previous Owner, as the boots are bulging with grease. Anyway I can wiggle them by hand and they are moving freely and there´s no binding or sticking or sloppiness to them.
Steering column, I can feel the sponginess of the rag joint so the steering column shaft is moving freely.
That leaves (I think) the Steering box and LH lower ball joint which is still riveted and has 170 000 original miles on it, but in my experience they get sloppy and loose when they wear out, not binding to the point where it makes at difference in steering feel.
So what do you guys think, is there steering boxes where adjustment on the set screw is backwards or is it just backed out almost all the way by the previous owner to "fix" a badly hurt steering box?
Should I just get a used but tested steering box from a junkyard, because with the symptoms I have the steering box is clearly fecked anyway and messing with it will only make it worse and possibly make the truck undriveable?
I live in Sweden so parts availability is good but not nearly as good as in the US. (I normally order stuff from Rock auto, but not sure if a Steering box with shipping cost is wort doing, and returning it if it does not work is definitely not going to happen)
Here it is, hate the wheels but if i black out or remove the shiny and red things they will work.
This is my first post, it became longer than I wanted but I´m trying to cram every little bit of info in it at once, to cover all bases.
So I bought this 1990 Z71 Sportside 1500 truck for my Daughter, and when we test drove it we noticed the steering was wonky and did not return to straight by itself.
But we liked the thing and bought it anyway, realizing worst case it needs a new steering box, best case it is just an adjustment issue, or a couple of steering components needing replacement, so no biggie.
So when we got it home, I loosened the locknut on top of the steering box to check the preload and to my surprise I find it backed out quite a bit, in fact I can only turn it about 1/4 turn counterclockwise before it appears to be against a stop. I thought that screw could be removed all together but I guess it is installed from the inside and has some kind of head on it?
Now before I start messing with it I thought I would ask here for guidance. As it is now we can drive the thing but it needs some attention to stay on the road
The symptoms are like this:
No weird sounds from pump or box, steering effort when parking is I suppose normal, AND when doing this the steering wheel is actually returning as normal ACCEPT for the last Half turn, where it gets tight.
Also, sometimes the last quarter turn out to full lock when stationary get´s really hard, as in loss of power steering assist. The truck has obnoxious 275x55/20 wheels which may have something to do with that, but this made me suspect that a steering component other than the steering box itself might be at fault, maybe both? I did get the feeling that if I force it to full lock and back again I can get to full lock with power assist, but then if go the other direction, it has the same symptoms in that direction. Rolling ever so slowly backwards or forwards it is working fine, no loss of power assist at full lock in any direction.
The annoying part is driving in a straight line. it needs constant direction adjustments, does not return to zero/straight by itself and you tend to overcorrect because of the too tight feeling combined with some sloppiness in the first inch or so of steering wheel travel(some of that is probably the ragjoint) but it feels like the steering box both is too tight AND have some play in it at the same time... weird.
So far I´ve ruled out: (sort of)
Upper ball joints, greased them, that made absolutely zero difference.
Lower Right is New, Not replaced by me though so not 100% sure that I can rule that one out, new parts can fail/be faulty too.
Idler arm, greased it and it seems OK.
Tie rods, both sides. Clearly there has been some troubleshooting made by a Previous Owner, as the boots are bulging with grease.
Anyway I can wiggle them by hand and they are moving freely and there´s no binding or sticking or sloppiness to them.Steering column, I can feel the sponginess of the rag joint
so the steering column shaft is moving freely.That leaves (I think) the Steering box and LH lower ball joint which is still riveted and has 170 000 original miles on it, but in my experience they get sloppy and loose when they wear out, not binding to the point where it makes at difference in steering feel.
So what do you guys think, is there steering boxes where adjustment on the set screw is backwards or is it just backed out almost all the way by the previous owner to "fix" a badly hurt steering box?
Should I just get a used but tested steering box from a junkyard, because with the symptoms I have the steering box is clearly fecked anyway and messing with it will only make it worse and possibly make the truck undriveable?
I live in Sweden so parts availability is good but not nearly as good as in the US. (I normally order stuff from Rock auto, but not sure if a Steering box with shipping cost is wort doing, and returning it if it does not work is definitely not going to happen)
Here it is, hate the wheels but if i black out or remove the shiny and red things they will work.
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