1996 GMC Z71 Steering
Question:
I goofed up. With that said here I go. I recently replaced my pitman arm on my 4×4 gmc and did not use the correct method or tools but got the thing replaced. It beat around on the pitman to help get it off the steering gear box shaft and dinged up the box casing a little. Now my steering is very, very stiff at any speed. I took it to a front-end shop and they could not really give me an answer for sure as to why it is behaving this way. They suggested that I replace the $800 steering gear box but they would not assure me that would fix the problem. They stated that something seems to be in a bind as the wheels are very hard to turn from lock to lock on the alignment machine. What suggestions or advice do you have for me? Bent steering gear box shaft? Steering column sensor (EVO?)? What does the steering sensor do? Does my gear box have an adjustment like the older pickups did? Does anyone think it could be my sensor? I just don’t see how I could have goofed it up though when I never worked on anything inside the truck. But it did get difficult to turn immediately after the pitman replacement (tried 2 different arm from different vendors just in case) Could I borrow a sensor of a friends truck to test mine? If so, what years? Thanks!
Response:
As far as the sensor is concerned, its probably not your problem. Using the proper scanner you would be able to determine if the one of the EVO sensors was bad anyhow, it would pop a code if it was operating outside of it’s designed parameters. If it was bad, the steering EVO would just turn to "middle" mode, which probably isn’t "difficult to turn". I believe the sensor your talking about is just the column position sensor which just count’s how fast your trying to turn the wheel. If it’s hard to just turn lock to lock, and you dinged the case, your probably bent your steering shaft and it is binding. YOu could easility check this buy disconnecting whatever steering component hooks to the pitman arm and then see if you can turn the wheels more easily. (You should notice at least some less resistance being that your not turning the whole gear too, but if you notice alot, then you have a bent steering shaft or something inside that box isn’t right.) Your gear box, if equipped with EVO, is adjustable with wrenches, just like the old ones, but it’s just the preload on the steering shaft, just like the old ones. You could take it to a dealer and have then adjust the EVO electronically as well to lighten up the load (Usally you have to beat the dealer over the head to get them to do this, but its done quite often, the EVO actually has a pretty good range of adjustment, most of which, however, can only be noticed between high and low speeds, it really doesn’t have a general heavy-lite setting, but rather the settings are more how the steering reacts at different speeds. Less turn of the wheel at high speeds, more at low speeds, that type of thing.) But that’s probably not your problem. If your wondering how I know all this, my best friend works for Delphi and is on the EVO team, so I’m constantly hearing about how it works and its public and dealer misconceptions of it. It’s also great because he has the development software (Which is way more adjustable than the software they give to the dealers) and right cables for his laptop and we can play with our trucks/cars EVO settings, and watch it on his screen, while we drive! Anyhow, my personal feeling is that you have a bad steering box. BlazerMan – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > I goofed up. With that said here I go. > I recently replaced my pitman arm on my 4×4 gmc and did not use the correct > method or tools but got the thing replaced. It beat around on the pitman to > help get it off the steering gear box shaft and dinged up the box casing a > little. > Now my steering is very, very stiff at any speed. > I took it to a front-end shop and they could not really give me an answer > for sure as to why it is behaving this way. They suggested that I replace > the $800 steering gear box but they would not assure me that would fix the > problem. They stated that something seems to be in a bind as the wheels are > very hard to turn from lock to lock on the alignment machine. > What suggestions or advice do you have for me? Bent steering gear box shaft? > Steering column sensor (EVO?)? What does the steering sensor do? Does my > gear box have an adjustment like the older pickups did? > Does anyone think it could be my sensor? I just don’t see how I could have > goofed it up though when I never worked on anything inside the truck. But > it did get difficult to turn immediately after the pitman replacement (tried > 2 different arm from different vendors just in case) > Could I borrow a sensor of a friends truck to test mine? If so, what years? > Thanks!
Response:
Great info 73! I lightened the preload with a couple of wrenches which that put my truck back to the state it was before I started messing with the tweaked the gear box adjustment a little. Other people with similar trucks have always stated that my steering seems stiff (prior to an probs) compared to their trucks. I just thought that it was normal. Could that be the EVO sensor needing adjustment that you wrote of? Once again, great data! Thanks a million, KrazY
As far as the sensor is concerned, its probably not your problem. Using the proper scanner you would be able to determine if the one of the EVO sensors was bad anyhow, it would pop a code if it was operating outside of it’s designed parameters. If it was bad, the steering EVO would just turn to "middle" mode, which probably isn’t "difficult to turn". I believe the sensor your talking about is just the column position sensor which just count’s how fast your trying to turn the wheel. If it’s hard to just turn lock to lock, and you dinged the case, your probably bent your steering shaft and it is binding. YOu could easility check this buy disconnecting whatever steering component hooks to the pitman arm and then see if you can turn the wheels more easily. (You should notice at least some less resistance being that your not turning the whole gear too, but if you notice alot, then you have a bent steering shaft or something inside that box isn’t right.) Your gear box, if equipped with EVO, is adjustable with wrenches, just like the old ones, but it’s just the preload on the steering shaft, just like the old ones. You could take it to a dealer and have then adjust the EVO electronically as well to lighten up the load (Usally you have to beat the dealer over the head to get them to do this, but its done quite often, the EVO actually has a pretty good range of adjustment, most of which, however, can only be noticed between high and low speeds, it really doesn’t have a general heavy-lite setting, but rather the settings are more how the steering reacts at different speeds. Less turn of the wheel at high speeds, more at low speeds, that type of thing.) But that’s probably not your problem. If your wondering how I know all this, my best friend works for Delphi and is on the EVO team, so I’m constantly hearing about how it works and its public and dealer misconceptions of it. It’s also great because he has the development software (Which is way more adjustable than the software they give to the dealers) and right cables for his laptop and we can play with our trucks/cars EVO settings, and watch it on his screen, while we drive! Anyhow, my personal feeling is that you have a bad steering box. BlazerMan – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > I goofed up. With that said here I go. > I recently replaced my pitman arm on my 4×4 gmc and did not use the correct > method or tools but got the thing replaced. It beat around on the pitman to > help get it off the steering gear box shaft and dinged up the box casing a > little. > Now my steering is very, very stiff at any speed. > I took it to a front-end shop and they could not really give me an answer > for sure as to why it is behaving this way. They suggested that I replace > the $800 steering gear box but they would not assure me that would fix the > problem. They stated that something seems to be in a bind as the wheels are > very hard to turn from lock to lock on the alignment machine. > What suggestions or advice do you have for me? Bent steering gear box shaft? > Steering column sensor (EVO?)? What does the steering sensor do? Does my > gear box have an adjustment like the older pickups did? > Does anyone think it could be my sensor? I just don’t see how I could have > goofed it up though when I never worked on anything inside the truck. But > it did get difficult to turn immediately after the pitman replacement (tried > 2 different arm from different vendors just in case) > Could I borrow a sensor of a friends truck to test mine? If so, what years? > Thanks!
