Hello,

Over the last year, I completely rebuilt my 2001 Chevy Blazer's front suspension to eliminate noise, leaks, and play. With now139k on this 4x4, I replaced the half shafts, wheel hubs, upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rods, idler arm, and the pitman arm and the steering box over the weekend. Now the steering feels pretty good but on slight turns at highway speeds, I feel a little play in the steering and a little rattle on bumps which is annoying. While I feel no play in the original rag joint and upper and lower steering shafts, I can lift up and down of the steering shaft at the firewall. While these parts are not cheap from the dealer, I'm considering replacing the rag joint, lower, and upper steering shafts, but my concern is at the firewall. Will replacing the upper steering shaft where it connects to the lower steering column eliminate the up and down play, or could this play be assoicated with a bad lower steering column bearing or the lower steering column shaft that attaches to the upper steering shaft at the firewall? Also, is there a joint in the steering shaft at the firewall, or is this a bolted together solid connection?

 

I haven't replaced all those things on my '01 but last year I felt a little play in the steering and some rattling so I replaced my stock steering stabilizer with a Rough Country steering stabilizer and that seemed to fix the problem...

I don't know enough to say for sure whether that would fix your problem but hopefully it helps a little!

Good luck

 

Thank you for replying! My 2001 4 door Blazer 4X4 does not have a steering stabilizer on it but I can feel up and down play in the steering shaft at the firewall. Also, in speaking to the parts department at a Chevy dealer where I worked as a mechanic years ago, I decided to order the lower steering column shaft bearing, and upper and lower steering shafts which includes the rag joint. Since I will be taking the entire steering column out to get to the bearing, I figured to have all of the parts on hand. Worse case, my Chevy parts department will probably take back any parts I don't install.

 

Did you try your upper A-FRAME bushings? I had the same problem and it ended up just being the upper a frame bushing on both sides. replaced all 4 for about 30bucks.

 

Hello,

This evening, I removed the steering column and pulled out the upper steering shaft and found that the up and down play I felt in the shaft when I grabbed it below the power brake booster was caused by the universal joint that was built into the upper shaft steering shaft. Being that I purchased the upper and lower steering shaft which included the rag joint and also the lower steering column bearing, I went ahead and put everything in and now it handles like it did when I first purchased it.