loose steering, what to look for?

[John Redcorn]

bought a 99 4wd tahoe 2 weeks ago and was told it needed outer tie-rods and all 4 ball joints. I replaced the outer tie rods and then had a shop replace the ball joints and align it.

After I got it back it still pulls a bit to the right, you have to have the wheel pointed 10-15deg to the left, more the faster you're going.

when one front tire hits a bump and not the other one there's a very weird feeling like one tire is pointing slightly the other way than its opposite side tire for a fraction of a sec.

and while going down the road you can shake the steering wheel back and forth maybe 5/8" in either direction without really feeling anything.

I'm kinda slow on suspension/steering stuff and have to go by what other people (friends, shops) tell me. A friend told me I should climb underneath and look for play at the connecting points of the pitman arm, idler arm and inner tie rods while someone else turns the wheels back and forth. I'm going to see if I can find someone to do this for me tonight, is there anything else I should be looking for?

I do have one front wheel bearing making some noise, if it's in bad shape could that be causing a bit of a pull? It couldn't cause any of those other problems though could it?

 

[Just Kroozn]

If the hub bearing is bad,it's an issue...fix that a.s.a.p...Food for thought,any alignment shop worth their mud would have caught the bad bearing and any other front end problems ...Inspection of the steering and related parts should be normal procedure for any shop offering alignments...if the front end is tight and you are pulling to one side...you might have a little "tire pull" have them swap the front tire's left to right or the camber /caster on the alignment is off spec or not adjusted for your local roads...my tech's have to adapt spec's...all our local roads pull cars to the right due to the crown in the road...good luck

 

[treepete]

yeah your shop should have said something about that. Unless they are chumps or something.

I think you should replace that wheel bearing with the quickness. Nothing but bad can happen by leaving it.
Pitman and idler arm seems to be mentioned a lot. your play in the steering wheels sounds like the same trouble described by others.