steering shaft clunking
 

I have a 2000 GMC Jimmy, 4dr, 2 wheel drive, about 140k miles on it.

I have a problem with a small amount of free play in my steering wheel (has now turned into about 1/4" and getting worse) and a clunking noise that you can hear and feel in the wheel and with your foot on the brake pedal or floor.

i have about 1/8 of a turn of free play in the steering box where i can turn the wheel 1/8 of a turn with some resistance and the steering shaft in the engine compartment will turn but the pitman arm will not move. this is not the free play i am talking about.

i can turn the wheel about 1/4" before the steering shaft foward of the firewall begins to move. there is no resistance at all in turning the wheel until it picks up and starts rotating the steering shaft forard of the firewall.

i took the telescoping shaft off (the one with the rag joint and the orange boot that makes changing that one spark plug a b*&$%) so that all that was sticking out foward of the firewall was the inner part of the telescoping shaft and the boot on the firewall.

with my friend holding the steering wheel still i could slightly turn the shaft sticking out of the firewall and feel the same clunking. so i took the steering column covers off to try to check the tilt wheel pivots as best as i could for the free play, but the tilt wheel pivot transmitted every wheel rotation without any free play. with my fingers touching the pivot inside the column, the pivot turned directly with the wheel.

so i went down under by where the brake pedal was and pulled back the steering shaft boot on the firewall and felt the shaft inside. i could feel a joint right under the boot and i could push on it with my finger and it was almost loose in place (like a round peg was a little too small for the round hole and it could move around). when i turned the wheel with my finger on the joint, the shaft that went through the firewall didnt move directly with the wheel and it felt like the clunk was right there by my finger, so it looks like the universal joint/pivot just on the interior side of the firewall above the brake pedal is causing my problem.

does anyone have any experience changing any of the steering column joints? or has anyone had a clunking like this in their steering? its been this way for a few months and only recently its started to get alot worse. when i go over bumps it clunks around alot and i feel it in the wheel, its kinda unnerving.

does the whole column and steering wheel have to be removed? there is a pretty heavy duty tube bolted in solid that the steering shaft is in, and it looks like i'll have to take that tube out to get to the joint down by the firewall. it looks like the dash may even have to come out to get that tube out.

any help is greatly appreciated.

thanks.

HOPE SOME ONE WILL REPLY TO YOU SOON, i HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM, i CAN'T BELIEVE WITH ALL the detail you've included no one responded, usually there is a great amount of help and support from everyone in here, good lck

This thread is from 09. Did you really need to say that or are you just working on your Post Count?

But you answer you there is a great deal of smart talented and just plan friendly and willing to hep someone out people on this Forum Not always someone knows whats going on or have any thought for something, or this thread could have very easily got skipped due to a lot of activity on the section of the forum.

I ended up fixing this problem earlier this year. I replaced #9 in the attached drawing. i think the name GM gave it was intermediate steering shaft assembly or something like that. it sure was pricey for what it was.......... something like $230 from the local GM dealer. but that was before i knew where to get GM parts cheaper online.