Steering Drift?

[CHC3]

I have an 87 K5 with a 4inch lift and 33's. The truck has continuous drift at any speed over 50mph. You have to constantly correct the steering all the time. Does anyone have any ideas? I have checked everything I can think of - Correct steering arm, tie rods, new steering stabilizer, tightened adjustment on steering pump, etc.... Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
CHC3

 

[keith]

yes me too. I replaced all my steering stuff on my recent rebuild. All except for the steering box, steering pump, and rag joint. They will be replaced soon by a unit from AGR. they make pumps and steering units that pump high volume amounts of fluid for better steering response.

 

[mrprex]

I too am replacing all my front end steering components, ball joints, tie rods, center link, adjusting sleeves, the works and I am hoping that it fixes it somewhat. I am running 33x12.50's. If I don't get an improvement I will let you guys know.

 

[Kodiak]

An often overlooked area is the tightness of the rotor/wheel bearings. There is a lock washer that can fail and allow the spindle nuts to loosen. Also the wheel bearings can wear down the races over the years and cause problems. The bigger the tires, the more stress to these areas. Wouldn't hurt to check them out.

 

[rich]

I'm new to this message forum, but from a lot of experience working with cars (autocross racing), I've found that the alignment specs make a big difference in high speed stability.

Positive caster gives you more stability at speed, but the caster is fixed on our Blazers (unless you want to do some mods to the front axle housing).

The one thing I can suggest is a little toe in. Toe in makes your vehicle more stable at speed, while toe out makes it unstable (but makes turn-in response quicker). You could suggest that the alignment shop add a little more toe in than the factory calls for - does anyone know what the facotry alignment specs are? You could add 1/8" to the factory toe in setting.

Has anyone else messed with custom alignment settings?

I also added a good steering stabilizer on my '90 Blazer and it helped firm the steering up on the highway.

Richard
'76 K-5 Blazer
'91 K-5 Blazer

 

[88Jimmy]

The toe-in on the blazer is 0*
on my Dana 60 I run 1/8 toe-in

350 Vortec TPI D60 14Bolt 4"lift 35 BFG A/T

 

[CK5]

What price are you guys seeing for tie rods? The local dealer wants 154. for the main bar and 57. for the end.

Steve

 

[BurbinOR]

One other thing to check is your frame by the steering box. These trucks are prone to cracking around them, and this can and will cause the looseness in the front end that you feel. Hopefully isn't your problem, but never hurts to check.

'79 - 406 w/IROC TPI - K5#5 - a <font color=orange>sickness

<font color=blue>you never get enough of!!