Sorry for the delayed followup. Had an issue with a aftermarket spider injector failing on cylinder three. Its fixed now.

Got the car aligned after the control arms and steering column replaced. Car still drifts all over, no change for good or bad.

My next suspicion is cv axles and wheel bearings. Theres nothing testing wrong with them, but i dont know what else to do.

 

couple questions from my side:

is the suspension stock?
are the rims stock?
if no, what has been modified? ( every single mod )

Blazer has a strange OEM spec an is known with some tire combinations to go all over places. We ride a truck suspension designed for off-road use. In order to minimize forces the camber and caster are near zero.

I have adjust mine with a slight tow in (as in really minimal) which helped a bit but is not the spec any alignment service would have.

 

Stock suspension (new KYB MonoMax shocks), factory rims (the fancy versions, but factory), Cooper cobra 235 75r15 radials.

the spec sheet I get does match the "close to zero" amounts. I believe. 02 to .05 is the range they work with...

intresting.

 

The possibility of tweaking the alignment specs I think is a good thing to consider.

I've seen elsewhere that tracking can be affected by doing the right adjustment. Of course these are all compromises between that and turning ease, tire wear, etc.

 

I've experienced something similar when the tire air pressure was below 30 psi.

 

UPDATE: The source of the PS fluid loss was a bad seal in the PS Pump Reservoir Cap, it was allowing fluid to escape when the pump ran, and especially when the engine was off and steering wheel turned. I made a Post here on making a new cap seal.

WOW.. Ive had the same problem. Feels like suddenly hitting Black Ice.

My 78 Blazer was DANGEROUS to drive, steer to the right (mostly) under just the wrong condition, 20-35 MPH and fairly tight turn, and I had to "chase" the steering wheel to the right as it didnt seem to do much of anything, then it would "catch" and try to drive me off the road. It didnt do this at highway speeds with gentle corners (that was the clue there was a steering pressure problem).

Some MORON (me) let the PS fluid get too low, it was near the bottom of the dipstick HOT. The reservoir shoudl be nearly full hot.

The steering pump, in a curve, was losing fluid, pumping air into the steering box, causing loss of steering force, then when the fluid "caught up", it started pumping and at that point, the steering wheel was turned WAY too far and the vehicle tried to then steer that tighter radius.

Usually when steering pumps run low on fluid, they make noise, this one didnt!

Other problems were:

1.) severe toe out on the PS (I had "adjusted" the turnbuckle and got it out of alignment). The outside shoulder of the PS front tire was ground off,

2.) badly hardened 13 year old Uniroyal tires (decent tread, but the rubber was too hard to grip, new Michelins made a HUGE difference!)

3.) the turnbuckle between the PS box and DS front wheel was also out of adjustment. That causes not only the steering wheel "index" (the cross bar) to not be horizontal when driving straight, but causes the steering box to always be pumping one side or the other when driving straight.

Combine all those problems due to age, steering misalignment, steering box pushing harder to one side than the other and temporary loss of steering fluid pressure and it gets dangerous.

Its easy to overlook that turnbuckle adjustment just after the steering box, but its CRITICAL to make sure that the PS box input shaft is steering "straight ahead" that the input shaft is in the "detent" (you can probably feel it with the engine off and rotating the steering wheel thru the free play, theres a slight "bump" when the input is centered) position so the fluid pressure is not being valved into rotating the output shaft.

Also check for binding brake calipers, the wheels should turn with one hand / finger.

 

Alright, listen to this.

I had the mechanic "play" around with sone spec. That seemed to help, but still had problems. He said he'd look into the gearbox if it where him.

After reaching out to Redhead about the possibility the steering box may have an issue and several videos, they authorized me to adjust the downward thrust adjustment WITHOUT voiding the warranty.

It took an hour to pick out the putty they put in. After a 16th of a backward turn, it cleared up most of the problems! There still seems to be some looseness, but it almost feels factory. She hold a straight-line and doesn't bump steer.

Can't help but think I should have pestered Redhead before all the other stuff.

 

This is important to know as I also installed a Red Head steering gear last year. How long/how many miles was on yours?

 

Uh, zero at install? Currently about 500.

Honestly, it was problem since i installed it. The steering always felt tight, but I assumed it was because of the tighter tolerances in thier reman processes and my unfamiliarity with a "new" blazer steering.

Turns out, the groaning power steering pump and tightness was the gearbox binding and fighting itself.