steering wheel play
 

any info? i posted before about a clangin noise and recently noticed the steering wheel seems to have some play in it? ive checked underneath and doesnt look like anythings loose or broken to me.:humm:

some steering wheel play is normal. When does it "clang"? all the time, only when turning?

it just does it when i hit bumbps in the road. other than that its fine. seems to drive like normal. ive looked and looked for anything loose and everyhting seems fine :humm:

My guess would be ball joints

hmmm. how much they run? is that pretty common?

ball joints is somethin that is a wear part, and have to be replaced every so often. Not sure how much they cost off the top of my head. Easiest way to check them is to jack the front of the truck up and wiggle the tire up and down to see if theres any play. Its easier if you use some kind of pry bar to do the wiggling.

Get under the truck with someone in the truck behind the wheel. Have them wiggle the wheel, while it is sloppy - check to see if the pitman arm is moving. I put a steering box in an 06 yesterday for this concern, the shaft was trying to walk out of the box! Had almost a quarter turn in the wheel before the pitman arm moved. It was SCARY to drive.

My clunk is caused by the Left Inner Tie rod where it enters the Pitman Arm; It needs to be replaced. You can actually see the play in it when someone rocks the steering wheel back and forth with the engine running.

Are you still having the problem?? better check it out good, my truck had 180k and the same issue, 4 ball joints, and the complete drag link later and all is well. the outer tie rod was so bad it was about to fail:scare2:: I was able to get all my parts from Napa, thinking it was around $500 for everything total, that might be a little high because I think I got new axle seals and hub orings and a couple other things while I was there..Bob

thanks for all the info ill check it out tommorow if it stop raining here. havent been driving it much latley been at work more than home. but yea i can still here it and it kinda does it when i hit the brakes and come to a stop.