steering box adjustment

[mitch]

Hey all, I just got my 03 yukon back from the alignment shop and they said that the box has a bit of play in it. The truck has 120,000 miles on it and I was wondering if this is a common thing for these trucks . I have owned it since new and have taken very good care of it, a large percentage of the mileage is high-way use and it's 2 wheel drive so off-roading isnt an issue. Has anyone else run across this and /or has anyone successfully adjusted the play out of the box. It's not really causing a problem now but I would hate to see it get worse. Thanks, Mitch.

 

[ezdaar]

There is no adjustment to fix the "play" in the box.
What the adjuster on thge box does in increase pinion preload. If you box is worn out this will not remove the slop, it will just make steering effort harder.

I just had to replace a steering box on my old 2000 YD. it was EXPENSIVE! try and find a low milage partout to get one cheap unless you dont care about the 350$ price tag.

I also got railroaded by a alignment shop. they initially told me it was idler and pitman arm play. So with out checking it myself I said go for it replace them. STUPID!
Neither of my parts was worn out! I marked them with a scribe to ID them when they pulled the parts.
I said hey let me see the old parts, dude bring in a idler and pitman arm coverd in greese and said here they are.
I told him they wasnt mine, then he proceeds to tell me i dont know WTF im talking about.
Thats when I said O yea. wheres the Scribe marks, where I put in the last 4 digits of my cell number on them.. thats when he STFU and said I brb. finnaly came up with my parts and I inspected them to find out nuthing wrong.
I get manager and tell him his store just ripped me for 550$ and I want my money back and a a steering box at store cost.

So I got full front end rebuild for 672$ with year warrenty and lifetime alignments.

Friggin sucked considering 2 weeks later I trade in for a 04 YD 6.0 AWD.. LOL O well..

 

[91RS]

There is adjustment in the gear box. If there is only a small amount of play over center it can be fixed with the box in the vehicle. I've done it on numerous vehicles including my old 91 Camaro and my dad's 2000 NBS pickup. However, don't try it yourself if you don't know what you're doing. If you go to far with it you will ruin the box and it will have to be replaced. Since you're at 120k on an 03 you probably do have a small amount of play in the box, but I would bet your pitman and idler arms are worn more and you won't be able to adjust the box properly in the car with other worn parts.

You won't be able to see how worn those arms really are out of the vehicle, it may not seem like there's any play using your fingers but when you've got 200 lbs of wheels and tires plus the weight of the vehicle pulling on it you'll see how worn they really are.

 

[mitch]

I replaced the idler, pitman and the tie rods with MOOG problem solver parts so I know the front end parts are not at fault. The truck also got a new steering intermediate shaft not long ago so the play is deffinately in the box. Mitch.