My 89 3/4 Burb has sloppy steering. EVERYTHING, with the exception of leaf springs has been changed. One ball joint 3 times. 2 steering boxes. I changed spring bushings front and rear to teflon. All tie rod ends and drag link. I love this truck and have been putting together a 6.5 to drop in it. I'm not going to go through the trouble if I can't get it to drive correctly. All suggestions welcome. Including ones that require modifications.

This may sound really stupid, but what kind of tires do you run?

I ask this because I have noticed a huge difference between my goodyear wrangler td's and my firestone wilderness at's.

The reason is this, the wranglers have a tread pattern that makes contact starting on one side of the tire, and as the tire is rotated that contact patch "moves" to the opposite side.

As the contact patch moves from side to side, so does the resistance you feel, thusly causing things to shake quite a bit.

The wildernesses on the other hand have a "continuous" contact patch. If you look at the tread pattern you can see that there are always atleast three different lugs in contact with the road, thusly negating the oscilation in resistance.

To simplify this theory we can generalize that the more agressive and open the tread pattern, the lower the stability will be at speeds due to the less contact with the road.

I am not sure if I have made this clear or not.

If you have access to some other tires, swap them out and give them a try.

Well, that's my two cents...

Oh, also look at your steering shaft & pin/bolt for play... totally unrelated... is the steering sloppy at all speeds?

Have you checked and changed the idler arm and pitman arm? Also there is some adjustment available in the steering gear itself. If you loosen the lock nut and tighten the gear bolt(don't overtighten) it will help in correcting some steering slop. I have done it on my 95 truck and 96 suburban and has helped take up the slop (dead space) between left and right steering wheel corrections.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Cool.gif http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Cool.gif

My suggestion is for modification. I'm guessing this is a K2500? Replace the font linkage with a hydrolic ram. You will no longer have a physical link to the front end because a hydrolic ram will turn your wheels with the power of the powersteering pump. Hydrolic ram steering is a step up.

My 89 3/4 Burb has sloppy steering. EVERYTHING, with the exception of leaf springs has been changed. One ball joint 3 times. 2 steering boxes. I changed spring bushings front and rear to teflon. All tie rod ends and drag link. I love this truck and have been putting together a 6.5 to drop in it. I'm not going to go through the trouble if I can't get it to drive correctly. All suggestions welcome. Including ones that require modifications.


This is the earlier frame guys, nobody mentioned looking for a cracked frame at the steering box. This happens a lot without reinforcements when you run big tires or subject it to a lot of load.

You can get a plate to bolt onto the frame as a reinforcer but a guy with a little skill could weld his own plate no problem.

In addition to cracked frame inspection, did you par-chance check wheel bearings, bad wheel bearings can also cause problems in steering, just changed them in my 90 gasser, night & day difference in steerability.