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Steering Problems. Need Help

90Suburban

90Suburban

1/2 ton status
Joined
Sep 25, 2011
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Location
Tustin, CA
I have a 1990 Suburban 1500 6" lift with stock steering. I am intermittently having trouble turning to the left on sharp turns in normal driving (I dont know about offroad or when the suspension is articulated). Once I get the engines rpms up it turns fine. Its like the power steering is totally gone when this happens. Any advice or idea on the problem? Steering box bad? What should I do? What upgrade? Thanks!! :waytogo:
 
Are you sure it's not just roll steer from the stock steering geometry? What is your drag link angle like? with the stock steering, especially with a lift, you have very little mechanical advantage when the drivers side droops because the draglink gets near vertical.

Also, the pump output is lower and lower RPMs, so that could be the issue, especially if the pump is worn out. How big of tires are you running? My truck pretty good on the street though with 35x12.50s and a good pump, but I was only about 3" taller than stock and actually had a little better steering geometry than stock.
 
owenst7 said:
Are you sure it's not just roll steer from the stock steering geometry? What is your drag link angle like? with the stock steering, especially with a lift, you have very little mechanical advantage when the drivers side droops because the draglink gets near vertical.

Also, the pump output is lower and lower RPMs, so that could be the issue, especially if the pump is worn out. How big of tires are you running? My truck pretty good on the street though with 35x12.50s and a good pump, but I was only about 3" taller than stock and actually had a little better steering geometry than stock.
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It could be roll steer, but I am not driving fast. Maybe 2 mph while turning.
 
I have 35x12.50s. So a better pump will help? I am not sure about the drag link angle.
 
Crossover steering might help, especially if you plan to do a lot of off-roading. Read the tech article here:

http://coloradok5.com/crossoversteering.shtml

I am in the process of doing mine right now, mainly because the steering sucked when rock crawling but I am curious to see what it does on the street cause I have read a few things on the web where people say their turning was much sharper after the conversion.
 
90Suburban said:
I am not positive. The lift was installed before I bought it and the guy before that had installed the lift. So he didn't know.
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Take a couple pics and post them here. We can figure out if something has been changed.
 
I had this happen on a 1985 truck I rebuilt about 3 years ago. At low rpm's or even just above idle the powersteering seemed nonexistant. Turned out to be a worn out pump when the revs would come up the pressure would return. I think that powersteering pressures can be tested but if you don't know the history of the unit just replace it cause its likely due anyway. Just my 2 cents.....
 
Okay, here are some pictures. I hope they are okay. It was dark out. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

SuburbanSteering6.jpg

SuburbanSteering5.jpg

SuburbanSteering4.jpg

SuburbanSteering3.jpg

SuburbanSteering2.jpg
 
Okay cool it looks like you have a raised steering arm, which is good.

This is the best way to correct the stock steering. Your draglink looks pretty flat, which is what it should be.

You can probably turn your attention to the afore mentioned pumps and associated problems. You might try tightening your power steering pump belt too. I had one pump where that belt had to be guitar string tight. Once the belt was tight no problems. Man I checked that thing alot but no problems.

One thing you need to do is have someone get in the truck and wiggle the steering wheel back and forth. I have a feeling some of your tie rod ends or drag link ends may be worn out some
 
Yeah, especially the one in the last pic with no boot on it. I bet that thing is wasted.
 
blazinzuk said:
Okay cool it looks like you have a raised steering arm, which is good.

This is the best way to correct the stock steering. Your draglink looks pretty flat, which is what it should be.

You can probably turn your attention to the afore mentioned pumps and associated problems. You might try tightening your power steering pump belt too. I had one pump where that belt had to be guitar string tight. Once the belt was tight no problems. Man I checked that thing alot but no problems.

One thing you need to do is have someone get in the truck and wiggle the steering wheel back and forth. I have a feeling some of your tie rod ends or drag link ends may be worn out some
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Well if its the pump I might as well go with ORD's cross over steering. Does that kit replace those tie rod ends and draglinks or do I just buy same as stock units from a parts store? The suburban is not for extreme rock crawling. Mostly light to medium offroad trials.
 
It replaces the whole drag link with new drag link ends but it doesn't do anything with the stock tie rod (bar the runs between the knuckles).
 
90Suburban said:
Well if its the pump I might as well go with ORD's cross over steering. Does that kit replace those tie rod ends and draglinks or do I just buy same as stock units from a parts store? The suburban is not for extreme rock crawling. Mostly light to medium offroad trials.
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Not that I'm saying crossover isn't an awesome steering setup, but replacing the pump really doesn't warrant the "might as well" syndrome to do crossover. You won't gain any leverage (does anyone know the effective lever length of the stock arm? I bet it's actually longer than most crossover arms).

I'm just thinking that since you say you're only doing mild wheeling, you might not really see a ton of benefit. It's kind of a project if you aren't already messing with the engine crossmember, and if you don't have a hookup for dealing with the passenger side knuckle, it can be expensive for a guy.

Maybe I misunderstood the direction you're going though. I generally believe that if you are doing a lot of wheeling without the sway bar (basically if you're needing a suspension with a lot of roll) connected, than crossover is a significant upgrade. If you don't need that articulation in the front suspension, there may be better places to put money and just leave the sway bar connected to reduce stress on the stock steering.
 
owenst7 said:
Not that I'm saying crossover isn't an awesome steering setup, but replacing the pump really doesn't warrant the "might as well" syndrome to do crossover. You won't gain any leverage (does anyone know the effective lever length of the stock arm? I bet it's actually longer than most crossover arms).

I'm just thinking that since you say you're only doing mild wheeling, you might not really see a ton of benefit. It's kind of a project if you aren't already messing with the engine crossmember, and if you don't have a hookup for dealing with the passenger side knuckle, it can be expensive for a guy.

Maybe I misunderstood the direction you're going though. I generally believe that if you are doing a lot of wheeling without the sway bar (basically if you're needing a suspension with a lot of roll) connected, than crossover is a significant upgrade. If you don't need that articulation in the front suspension, there may be better places to put money and just leave the sway bar connected to reduce stress on the stock steering.
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Yea I see you point. I also want to go with 37' in the near future. I just hate to buy a new steering box and realize down the road I need crossover and then have to replace the box again with a 2wd box. The boxes arent cheap either.
 
90Suburban said:
Yea I see you point. I also want to go with 37' in the near future. I just hate to buy a new steering box and realize down the road I need crossover and then have to replace the box again with a 2wd box. The boxes arent cheap either.
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You can always just swap the sector shaft. That's what I did. Takes all of 5-10 minutes. You don't even have to remove the box.

I don't see why you couldn't use a 2wd sector shaft with stock steering either. The keys on the 2wd shaft are every 90*, you could just clock the pitman arm on the sector. I wonder if it would be a good way to deal with steering correction for people running lifts but that still have stock steering, since it would give you way more pitman arm options.

Do you need a new steering box now?
 
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