I had my blazer into the shop for loose steering feel awhile back. Upon inspection they showed me the joints where the idler arm and center link were worn so I had those replaced. My "old" 1993 Jimmy that I owned had really tight steering. Even after those parts were replaced, the steering on this blazer still feels way too loose to me. You hit an irregularity in the road and the blazer feel like it wants to take off in the direction of the ditch or the opposing lane. I also had a realignment recently. What else can make the front end feel so loose?

 

I have the same issue, or at least it sounds the same. Is there any play in your steering wheel when changing from right to left or vice versa? I had about an inch of play. It turns out the play is in the steering box itself. Meaning if you turn the wheel at the input spline of the steering box, it moves before any output. On the flip side of that,when I go down the road a bump may move the wheels before I can adjust at the steering wheel.

I've tried replacing the steering box with a reman unit, and it does the same thing. I've also adjusted the gear mesh screw on the top of the box and while that firmed up the feel of the steering, the play is still there.

 

Yep, that sounds about right. I think maybe next weekend I'm going to get under there and have my neighbor turning the steering wheel to see if anything looks "loose". I specifically asked the shop that did my alignment job to see if they could detect anything loose under there (steering/suspension-wise) and they said no.

 

Probably a combination of play in the steering box itself and the rubber "rag joint" on the steering shaft a few inches above it. Some have replaced the rag joint with a new rubber disc(including me) some have taken shafts out of Cherokee's which used Ujoints instead and there is also a few who have purchased a Flaming River's(I think was the brand) Ujoint and swapped it onto their stock steering shaft instead of the rubber rag joint. You can tighten the adjuster screw on the steering box too but if you go too far you could hurt the box, everybody's results seem to vary it's hard to say without seeing it.

 

HMMM Might be what I suspect as the same problam as mine-if the torsion bars bushings are messed up-bring it to a body/suspension shop All of my findings
have brought me to the torsion bars on this issue...

 

You might want to look into flaming river u-joint. I've heard good things about it--
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FLA-FR1746DD/

 

Other than the price , they are great! I will be doing the Jeep steering shaft swap on my K5 when I put in the 2wd steering box and cross over steering.

The factory rag joints can wear out prematurely if oil gets on them.

 

I've verified that the rag joint is fine in mine. The play really is in the box. You can move the input shaft before any movement on the pitman is seen. Also, quickly bounce the steering wheel between left and right you can hear a "clank" almost. I've verified it is coming from the box. I thought putting in a reman unit would fix it, it didn't, and it is really the only bad part about driving my blazer. On side roads its great. But on the 30 mile round trip of highway to work and back, it can be somewhat hairy.

I imagine it is either play betweent he worm gear and the cylinder inside, or between the cylinder and the pitman gear. Either way, adjusting the mesh screw does nothing except firm up return-to-center feel.

Any thougths? And, sorry about jacking the thread.

 

Maybe you need to look for a different steering box. You can try a Zq8 steering box, or there is another one (I think from an 80's g-body) that will fit our blazers. There are quick ratio steering boxes. Maybe that will fix the problem you're referring to?