Clunking/Play In Steering-Suspension

[BuickBoy]

Hello all,
My name is James, I'm from Michigan but I am currently in Arkansas at my girlfriend's aunt's house. Her aunt has a 2005 Tahoe. Her husband, girlfriend's uncle, is in Iraq currently and her aunt is having some noises in the front end of her truck. I'm quite experienced and knowledgeable about cars, but not trucks.

The sound is a clunking noise, typical of strut plates or struts in cars. However, it is different in the way that you can feel the play or clunking all the way up into the steering wheel. It is also only clearly heard on the drivers side.

When you hit bumps at higher speeds (probably due to road noise) you cannot hear the clunking. This clunking is most noticeable at speeds less than 20MPH and on fairly smooth roads.

I grabbed the driver's side wheel and tried to turn it by hand left to right to see if there was play, typical of tie rod ends and sometimes CV shafts, and it was solid. I quickly crawled under the car and grabbed the tie rod and pulled it back and forth and it was solid.

My question to you all is could you please give me ideas of techniques or things to look for to diagnose this seemingly easy problem before I send her off to a shop to be bent over?

Also, I know that some GM vehicles had rack n pinion issues. Were these issues in the SUV's also?

Anything to help is welcomed!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Sepiroth]

It reads to me as the classic intermediate shaft needing replacement. In the technical write up and installation forum you will find info on this.

 

[BuickBoy]

Thank you for your fast reply!

I completely agree with you that is exactly what it is. O'Reily's will be seeing me tomorrow. (if they are open)

How long does it usually take. I'm used to be under the dash due to wiring up my pillar pod in my car. Looking at the pictures it looks cramped but if it is truely only one bolt it shouldnt be too hard.

Thanks again!

 

[Sepiroth]

I've replaced shafts before, but never in a GM SUV. Of the ones i replaced, the job was not bad.

 

[BuickBoy]

I've replaced shafts before, but never in a GM SUV. Of the ones i replaced, the job was not bad.

I'm reading as much as I can about them...

Between the years they have changed.

I've read that there is an essential tool to be used to avoid damaging a coil spring or something. That is fine, and the part is about $80 which is expensive but cheaper to have me try to fix it then have her go to a dealership or garage.

Reading all of this now, I might have just diagnosed a clunking on my own car .

 

[Sepiroth]

Yes you want to make sure that the steering wheel does not move. I am sure you can think of another way to hold the wheel so it will not move. I used the Club.

 

[BuickBoy]

Yes you want to make sure that the steering wheel does not move. I am sure you can think of another way to hold the wheel so it will not move. I used the Club.

I'll have to pick up the pin that they suggest as an essential tool. I found on another forum during my quest here some pictures/better instructions on how to change it out.

I also read how to do it on different vehicles to make sure I couldn't screw it up.

Thanks again!

 

[boostaholic]

Should be fairly easy to replace, I'll be doing an upgraded borgeson unit on my truck next year. I have the same symptoms and you can see the play in the shaft if someone shakes the wheel for you. The little u-joints are prone to failure, I know the silverado ss trucks had a recall but the gm factory stuff is crap compared to a good aftermarket piece (borgeson is much smoother too).

http://www.borgeson.com/TRUCKS/CHEVY.html

 

[oneradride]

I have done 4 of these now, (not all my truck) the first one took about 45 minutes, now it takes about 20.
They are made to compress/collapse in the event of a collision. The grease that fills the area where the 2 pieces slide comes out and in turn you have slop and clunking.

 

[BuickBoy]

Should be fairly easy to replace, I'll be doing an upgraded borgeson unit on my truck next year. I have the same symptoms and you can see the play in the shaft if someone shakes the wheel for you. The little u-joints are prone to failure, I know the silverado ss trucks had a recall but the gm factory stuff is crap compared to a good aftermarket piece (borgeson is much smoother too).

http://www.borgeson.com/TRUCKS/CHEVY.html

I settle for nothing but the best on my car. However, since this is not my vehicle I'm going to have to replace it with the cheaper part.

Hopefully Reilly's has them in stock tomorrow.

 

[Grebbler]

Had some free time at work so I took mine out to look it over. I could feel the play in the spline shaft.

Wanting to make sure this was the cause of my clunking, I epoxied the engine compartment end of the shaft closed and put a Zerk in the shaft near that end. I then collapsed the shaft and vised it so it couldn't move and slowly pumped in some thick red grease until it filled the splines, pushing the white lithium grease out the other end. :iq:

Reinstalled it and no more clunk. :thumbsup:

It should hold me until I find the best I-Shaft I can afford or come up with a way to squelch it once and for all.

Greb

 

[BuickBoy]

I just wanted to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped with this!

I got it completed in a very timely manner. Took about 30 minutes of work time. Although I did start to get discouraged at first however.

So after we enjoyed Black Friday we went to Reilly's and picked up a replacement shaft. I got back and got out some of the house tools (a cheap socket set). Everything was missing out of the set! No joke... it was missing the drive converters, the ratchet was broken, and the sockets were mismatched.

I told my girlfriends aunt that I needed some tools so I ran to Wal-Mart and grabbed a Stanley deep socket set for $20 and got back to work. Luckily there were more tools and sockets in the garage that I was able to make work.

After that trip into town I got back and started tearing it apart. I got the shaft out in no time maybe 5-10 minutes (taking my time). I examined it for play and there was just a little tiny bit. I grabbed the new part and felt it for play. THERE WAS MORE PLAY IN THE NEW PART THAN THE OLD!! The new part had independent shafts which were held together by a cheap little Allen screw. I took it back to O'Reilleys and they gave me my money back. I asked for directions to the nearest dealership.

I got to the dealership and the parts guy looked at me with the old part in my hand and he said 99+? I said yessir and he handed me the part. I paid the same price for the GM part as I did for the junk Dorman part, but the kicker was that the GM part total was $1 and some change CHEAPER than O'Reillys in the same town with the same tax! That made me laugh.

I no sooner got back and spent 5-10 minutes putting the new GM part in. Put the gas pedal back on. Test drove it with it torn apart. It was fixed! Spent another 5-10 minutes putting the dash back together and away I went.

I dont see the problem or at least with the 2005 that most people seem to have with the gas pedal. On the 2005 it was two nuts and a plug and it was off.

I documented most of my moves as I do when I work on any car by taking pictures of everything.

It's perfect now and I couldnt thank you all enough!

 

[Grebbler]

I'm glad it all worked out.

It's freaky how that small amount of play makes it feel like a wheel is going to fall off and pass you on the freeway, which happened to me, BTW, in my '91 S-10.

I wonder which revision of the shaft you got and what the cost was. I can't quite remember all that I have read on them. Was it two updated shafts then a special grease kit or was the grease issued between the two shafts? Did GM ever come out with a 100% fix? :confused2:

Greb

 

[BuickBoy]

I'm glad it all worked out.

It's freaky how that small amount of play makes it feel like a wheel is going to fall off and pass you on the freeway, which happened to me, BTW, in my '91 S-10.

I wonder which revision of the shaft you got and what the cost was. I can't quite remember all that I have read on them. Was it two updated shafts then a special grease kit or was the grease issued between the two shafts? Did GM ever come out with a 100% fix? :confused2:

Greb

It was the GM part number ending in 14...

 

[Whitewhale]

Buickboy,
I posted on this recently. GM has come out with a redesign complete shaft. I was able to cut a deal with ny local stealer to split the cost since my 03 had history with this like all GM trucks going back to 2000. The replacement is a new upper and lower. Years back they gave me a new lower under warranty but the problem returned. Check out the GM repalcement, it became available March 2008. My truck rides like brand new, no clunk, no noise.

Good luck,

 

[sookeyukon]

Steering Lube Kit/directions

This link has the GM steering kit, direction and pics.


http://www.gm-trucks.com/home/Technical/Maintainance-Reference/Intermediate-steering-shaft-lube.html

 

[sookeyukon]

Steering lubs directions/pics

This link shows the GM Steering lube kit, directions and pics!

http://www.gm-trucks.com/home/Technical/Maintainance-Reference/Intermediate-steering-shaft-lube.html

 

[GMTECH56]

If you don't want to spend any money on this and GM doesn't make the lube kits anymore(not sure about aftermarket) all you have to do is take the 15mm bolt off on the gear side under the hood and grab the end of the shaft and move it all the way in and out about 20 times and this will cure the noise for awhile.

 

[sookeyukon]

If you don't want to spend any money on this and GM doesn't make the lube kits anymore(not sure about aftermarket) all you have to do is take the 15mm bolt off on the gear side under the hood and grab the end of the shaft and move it all the way in and out about 20 times and this will cure the noise for awhile.

Thanks, worked great for a quick fix :thumbsup:

 

[MyHoe02]

Is this the same problem. .... I just bought a 2002 Tahoe Ls smaller 4.8. I noticed with my radio off there a slight clunking only on slow turns . For example when coming home noticed a sudden pop or more less a loud clunk and sudden loosness in steering. It never is more than one clunk with sudden loosness in steering but definitely makes me feel unseasy. I wonder what this is . I dont know anything about GM/Chevy and even lookd to see if was fenderwell rub. It has to be front shaft. I read on several causes but can someone please help or have the same problem. PM me if you could