You guys were so helpful on my last question, I thought I'd hit you guys up again.

I have a '98 Blazer 2WD.

The steering is very loose... approximately 15 degrees slack, both with the engine running and off.

I looked under the hood and under the frontend while my wife rocked the wheel, and here's what I saw:

the steering has no slack down the column and into the steering gearbox.

The pittman arm has ZERO movement below the steering box.

The "cover" on the upper part of the steering box has a little shifting to it, not much, might be normal.

Am I looking at a gearbox replacement, or is there something I'm not seeing?


Thanks guys!!

 

There shouldn't be any shifting of the cover. Nothing should hit it. Because it is shifting, I would remove the cover and check out the rag joint. It is what connects the steering shaft to the gear box. Sounds like that may be the source of your troubles. It's a fairly cheap part that isn't too bad to replace. Space is at a premium down there though.

 

OK, I went outside and checked under the cover... turns out it was touching the steering shaft, and was rotten, it split in half as soon as I touched it... so I threw the cover in the garbage.

The rag joint (that's the rubber/fiber ring right?) is solid and isn't giving, the shaft is turning right into the gearbox.

Is there anything to tighten in/on the gearbox, or is it just something to replace?

THanks!!

 

You can see that there isn't play in the rag joint (yes it is the rubber thing)?

There is an adjustment to the gear box, but if done incorrectly, you can trash the gear box. Too much of an adjustment will cause the gear box to destroy itself. The instructions are in other threads... "gear+box+adjustment" should turn up something.

 

Why did you only check there,check your ball joints, pitman arm, tie rod ends, idler arm, any of these thing can give you a loose steering wheel. Get you another plastic cover it protects your rag joint that is why it is there.

 

swartlkk, you are AWESOME!

I followed the directions found in the thread below, and it tightened up beautifully... I had to do almost a full 1/2 turn, did it in two increments with test drives inbetween... it still returns to center on its own, so should be ok (not overtightened)... once again, THANK YOU!

https://blazerforum.com/forum/showth...box+adjustment

 

shagman I can not believe you are adjusting your gear box without checking the rest of your front end. Good Luck hope that was your problem and you did not compensate for loose front end parts.

 

In his original post he stated that the pitman arm had no slop... I would take that to mean that he inspected the components under the truck...

 

Yeah, sorry I wasn't more explicit on that, but I spent the last two weeks doing front-end work already, so all that's solid... the loose steering was the last thing on the list to fix after bushings/control-arms and bearing/hubs.