Tight/Binding Steering Issue

[east302]

east,
Are the Bluetops still working? I have been tempted to call them about rebuilding mine. My 97 has 166k on it and it's time to fire the parts cannon on the front end.......

I soooo look forward to drilling the BJ rivets out.

No issues so far. I didn’t send mine in for a rebuild, I just bought one of their boxes and sent mine in as a core. The one in the Tahoe has maybe 20k on it and I just put one in another 98 last month.

When you email them you’re emailing the owner. I had a few questions for them and he was emailing me back and forth on a Sunday. It was kind of refreshing.

Meaning - if I had an issue, I’d have more confidence in getting it resolved. I’d buy another one, but would have to get another truck to go with it.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

east,
Are the Bluetops still working? I have been tempted to call them about rebuilding mine. My 97 has 166k on it and it's time to fire the parts cannon on the front end.......

I soooo look forward to drilling the BJ rivets out.

Did all 400 series trucks have riveted in upper ball joints? Cause my Burb had bolts to take loose when I replaced them in October 2018. I figured they were original, because they were extremely floppy and wore out a set of front tires in 6 months. The truck had like 170,000 miles on it then....

 

[east302]

Did all 400 series trucks have riveted in upper ball joints? Cause my Burb had bolts to take loose when I replaced them in October 2018. I figured they were original, because they were extremely floppy and wore out a set of front tires in 6 months. The truck had like 170,000 miles on it then....

Those had probably already been replaced. 99% sure that GM riveted those jokers in on the K-trucks at least.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[alpinecrick]

No issues so far. I didn’t send mine in for a rebuild, I just bought one of their boxes and sent mine in as a core. The one in the Tahoe has maybe 20k on it and I just put one in another 98 last month.

When you email them you’re emailing the owner. I had a few questions for them and he was emailing me back and forth on a Sunday. It was kind of refreshing.

Meaning - if I had an issue, I’d have more confidence in getting it resolved. I’d buy another one, but would have to get another truck to go with it.

Good to hear.

And of course you need another truck........

 

[alpinecrick]

Did all 400 series trucks have riveted in upper ball joints? Cause my Burb had bolts to take loose when I replaced them in October 2018. I figured they were original, because they were extremely floppy and wore out a set of front tires in 6 months. The truck had like 170,000 miles on it then....

If yours had bolts it has been replaced previously.

You lucky dog........

 

[Frank Enstein]

My 94 Sub 25002wd did. Worst upper ball-joint I ever did.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Those had probably already been replaced. 99% sure that GM riveted those jokers in on the K-trucks at least.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

OK, thanks. My Burb is a 2wd. The lowers were still fairly tight, so I figured they'd been done already. When we bought it, it had 136,000 on it. That was in February 2013. It needed a set of tires, but appeared to be reasonably well maintained. Further I got into it though, that didn't seem to be the case. Cap and rotor were bad, and that screwed up the starter and flywheel. If it hit one of the bad spots, you'd have hell getting it to start.
But we bought it for a swap meet truck, and didn't drive it much except for that for the first 4 years we had it. Then the newer car and truck we had started falling apart, so the Burb got promoted to daily work.
I've got new complete upper control arms now, just have to have a free weekend to get them in. Bushings are toast but it's easier to fix it with the complete package. I'll keep the UBJs if they're still good ( they're MOOG problem solvers that cost me $50 each so I hope so!)

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

If yours had bolts it has been replaced previously.

You lucky dog........

Worst part was getting the shafts to pop out of the spindle holes. Didn't want to go crazy on them with air tools and knock it off the jackstands. So I beat on them a while with my biggest hammers and cussed it a lot. Finally what worked was a pickle fork and pitman arm puller combination.
Another reason I figured they'd been in there for 19 years.....

 

[alpinecrick]

My 94 Sub 25002wd did. Worst upper ball-joint I ever did.

Cobalt bits.

And a Drill Doctor.

I'm pretty sure the rivets are made of Kryptonite. A million years from now the truck will be dust and but there will be a little pile of friggin' BJ rivets sitting there..........

 

[east302]

Cobalt bits.

And a Drill Doctor.

I'm pretty sure the rivets are made of Kryptonite. A million years from now the truck will be dust and but there will be a little pile of friggin' BJ rivets sitting there..........

...which some alien civilization’s archaeologists will study and think that they were religious talismans that we coveted and made into necklaces.

We’ve completely derailed this guy’s thread, lol. Sorry, @Ruff Idol