ggeorgia
Member
PROBLEM SOLVED!! -- I finally determined that the cause was in fact the lower intermediate steering shaft! Thanks to every for the input, as it gave me some perspective to my situation.
Upon closer inspection at the steering gear box input shaft and lower intermediate steering shaft, I rotated the coupler joint (by hand) and could feel a bit of slop that was difficult to identify by merely looking at the connection. Although the input shaft had a little movement/slop, it was apparent that the majority of the slop could be attributed to the coupler on the lower intermediate steering shaft. I made sure once more that the pinch bolt was properly torqued (33 ft-lbs) but the connection remained sloppy.
As mentioned, I had previously replaced the upper and lower intermediate steering shafts in the fall of 2016 with Dorman parts (big mistake!), so I of assumed that it couldn't be the culprit since the replacement was relatively new. At the time, I was inclined to go with Dorman's design given the history of the original GM intermediate steering shaft and the problems that plagued it for years -- this is evident by the stories of many others on various boards for years. Dorman claimed to address the design flaws of GM, but seemed to have fallen short. I'm becoming increasingly leery of Dorman, as I just had another Dorman part (set of door hinge pin bushings) that was absolute junk. Their quality has completely gone south.
After reading responses from everyone last week and reinspecting, I decided to order a new GM OEM upper and lower intermediate steering shaft from RockAuto. By now, I figured that GM got their act together to fix the design issues. Got the new parts on Friday and installed this weekend. I was able to tell the difference immediately!
Here's the new video for comparison. I'm doing the 1-finger test (consistent with the first video) to demonstrate how firm/loose the steering wheel is when the truck if off:
Really appreciate everyone weighing in on this topic! I picked up some other good ideas Energy Suspension sway bar bushings.
Upon closer inspection at the steering gear box input shaft and lower intermediate steering shaft, I rotated the coupler joint (by hand) and could feel a bit of slop that was difficult to identify by merely looking at the connection. Although the input shaft had a little movement/slop, it was apparent that the majority of the slop could be attributed to the coupler on the lower intermediate steering shaft. I made sure once more that the pinch bolt was properly torqued (33 ft-lbs) but the connection remained sloppy.
As mentioned, I had previously replaced the upper and lower intermediate steering shafts in the fall of 2016 with Dorman parts (big mistake!), so I of assumed that it couldn't be the culprit since the replacement was relatively new. At the time, I was inclined to go with Dorman's design given the history of the original GM intermediate steering shaft and the problems that plagued it for years -- this is evident by the stories of many others on various boards for years. Dorman claimed to address the design flaws of GM, but seemed to have fallen short. I'm becoming increasingly leery of Dorman, as I just had another Dorman part (set of door hinge pin bushings) that was absolute junk. Their quality has completely gone south.
After reading responses from everyone last week and reinspecting, I decided to order a new GM OEM upper and lower intermediate steering shaft from RockAuto. By now, I figured that GM got their act together to fix the design issues. Got the new parts on Friday and installed this weekend. I was able to tell the difference immediately!
Here's the new video for comparison. I'm doing the 1-finger test (consistent with the first video) to demonstrate how firm/loose the steering wheel is when the truck if off:
Really appreciate everyone weighing in on this topic! I picked up some other good ideas Energy Suspension sway bar bushings.
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