Steering Wheel Alignment Off with Play

Orange said:

Hello All,

I've done a lot of research on this subject (search function on the forum works well) but I'm having trouble narrowing down what I should look at next.

1999 Cadillac Escalade. Bought a few months ago. Recently replaced upper & lower ball joints, pitman arm, and idler arm. Had the truck aligned at a good suspension shop, and asked them to align wheel, which they did, but still have it cooked to the right about 1 o'clock position most of the time.

Steering wheel has play in it while parked (and moving) from about 1 o'clock to 11 o'clock. Will driver "straight" both ways, but it switches up from both positions, and in between.

I've narrowed it down to 3 things:

EVO sensor: thought this might be it, but most threads on TYF point to issues at freeway speeds, and do not mention issues while parked (and engine on).

Gearbox: possible, but truck is very solid overall (2 older previous owners who took amazing care of the truck) with only 100K miles.

Intermediate steering shaft - I hope not, heard it's almost impossible to find at the dealer, and costly if you can find it.... There is an "upgrade" proposed using an old cherokee shaft, but as far as I can tell, it won't fit the 96-99 OBS trucks.

I don't want to throw parts on until I find the problem, looking for recommendations.

Bonus question - what will cause slight steering shake at 70 MPH? Will one missing front lug nut cause this vibration? Or do I need to check something else.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

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