Steering play at pitman arm

I SEARCHED....

yeah yeah this is another wobble thread, sort of. i've battled death wobble on and off for a couple years and it's been acting up again. my whole steering is redone and there are heims at both ends of the draglink, tie rod(knuckle to knuckle steering), and trac bar. D.O.M. built and moved to top of axle(yes it's parallel to draglink). well i didn't have good heims for a long time and then got even cheaper ones so i just blamed clunking and wobbling on those, but this summer i put high quality joints on everything but i'm still getting clunk. i'm thinking that my actually steering pump has play in it. now i don't know much about the actual pump and internals so that's why i'm posting. there is a huge amount of clunk coming from up there when driving on country crappy roads out to where i live now. the play is actually at the pitman arm so i dont know what to do. i've had DW so much in the past i think it's just loosened it up. so if you have suggestions or questions let me know and i will try them or answer them

noone?

Are you saying that you have play in your steering gear? Have you checked the steering shaft? I personally haven't had to deal with DW with my '99 and its 3 different lift heights, but most reports I have seen were caused by poor alignment/geometry.

Greg M.

sounds like you need to replace your steering box. if your pitman arm moves in any direction except left to right its probly shot.

-Tim

I have a '97 thats had a terrible clunk for a couple of years, so I replaced the trackbar with the RE1600, thinking that it would fix the problem. I had it aligned and the clunk got worse. So I asked a couple of guys to check it out, they both said it was the steering box, so I did the WS6 upgrade, love the box, but I still have the clunk. My hubs are good, ball joints are good, only other things I can think of would be the TRE's (which I thought were good), or the steering shaft. Any suggestions?

I'm having a time as well, I have a 89 sport 2 door with 2" of lift and 30x9.50 15's, just a daily driver...never had a problem and a week ago at 45 mph DW like an earthquake, replaced the steering stabilizer & shocks (just b/c it needed it) nothing...tried stock 235x75's..no help, replaced the track arm..nothing, upper & lower c-arm bushings are fine, had the tires re-re-re balanced, alignment was perfect (2 diff shops), checked all tie-rods there was only 1 questionable (at pitman arm) and replaced it...(hence 2nd alignment check) hubs are good (spun wheels while in air w/ no wobble, no play @ 6 & 12 o'clock, no squeals as well), ball-joints ok (per 2 shops)...the only thing is with the truck in the air, holding the tire @ 9 & 3 0'clock & rock back & forth they move about 1 inch side to side (the pitman arm moves side to side "left & right" maybe 1/2 inch of play) is that normal? "play in the steering gear?" with the steering wheel locked of course...