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Hello all. I luckily enough just came home and was able to park my Suburban but as I made a u-turn to align it with the opposite curb, I turned the vehicle and heard a loud clunk. I was able to continue turning, but to a much smaller degree. Then finally I could turn the wheel but the wheels wouldn’t turn.
I have been driving with a power steering leak I was just about to fix (since I just got paid today — talk about coincidences). I am wondering if the problem is simply a lack of fluid. There was some play in the steering but not much. I could still turn full in either direction — until just a minute ago.
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I imagine a Suburban without power steering would be a handful. That however doesn’t explain the loud noise. I wonder if the pump could have thrown its belt. If the belt is off check to see if the pump can still be turned by hand.
The clunk sound does not sit well with me.
Basic checks:
Belt
Fluid
Jack each side of the front end up and do a full suspension/steering check for play.It might be a tie rod let loose–you did mention play in the wheel.
Could also be steering gear box mount issue, all the way to the rag joint on the gear box.
Need to do a complete visual inspection for broken parts. The clunk tells us that something physically broke or let loose. With luck this should be something that can be seen. Plus if you jack up both front tires and get them off the ground–You can also rotate the wheel freely (I would hope) and see what happens—or doesn’t happen. Safety first! Use jackstands!
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It definitely seems like it has to be something in the system besides the steering fluid and pump now that I think about it. I only realized this morning that there was a ton of fluid on the floor because as I was turning the wheel last night, there was plenty left in the reservoir and I could hear liquid being forced out. Tie rods seemed like the least expensive option for a project to start with, so I have to go with that for the time. Thanks to Tedybear315 and barneyb for the input.
If you have fluid coming out you should really inspect the steering rack, new tie rods won’t make a difference….. You may have a blown seal in the steering rack…
-Karl
Yeah, with much fluid on the floor something hydraulic must have let go. Maybe it is a hose, maybe a seal, whatever it is that is what you need to address. Run the pump out of fluid and you may end up needing a new pump too.
THere was a notable leak, for sure, but it never left enough fluid on the ground. It was only when the tires stopped turning while I turned the steering wheel that fluid started squirting out. It seems the fluid had nowhere to go so it went through the leak.
But I’ve since discovered the problem, which will show how new to this I am. For the first time today I actually looked at the steering system. Turns out the control arm broke off by spliting the bolts in it in half. So that part that it connects to has 3 bolts stuck in it. I need to know the name of that part so I can replace it since I don’t figure I can get the bolts out any way. I’ll of course also need to replace the control arm. Any tips on doing this would be much appreciated.
Broken parts will make it hard to steer. Address those first. If something won’t come apart, hit what it goes through with a hammer. Don’t hit the actual part itself, just what it passes through. Sounds like you may need an alignment when you’re done so you should consider that possibility into your repair. Sounds like you should also be addressing that leak. If not, other issues might come up. Check the bottom of the steering box. If you see a lot of fluid there, you might have a leaking pinion seal. This is a common problem on those vehicles.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Thanks Eric. I will definitely have to do a few things additionally. I took the steering arm to a machine show because I thought one bolt was stuck, but it turns out to have been a doubt sided bolt so there are threads on the top and the bottom of it. That one just came out with a few knocks of a hammer.
But as you can see in the images below, it appears the knuckle has 3 screws still stuck in it. I’m not seeing this part anywhere on the internet though. Perhaps I have the name wrong.
This shot shows it from slightly higher, you can see its flat because the bolts are all broken off.
This is the clearest shot from above where you can see the threw places that bolts should be sticking out of.
As far as I can tell in my blatant inexperience, my choices are to replace the knuckle with a new one which may or may not come with new bolts. Or I can try to salvage one from a truck in a salvage yard. Anyone have any other ideas or any idea of how to go about these better? Much obliged.
I am also thinking that this all happened because of a cheap suspension lift kit with those little mounting blocks placed at various spots on the frame. I think I will need to remove that immediately after. The bolt furthest from the front of the car has the most pressure on it if the steering arm is being lifted upward (it would be the one furthest from the vantage point of those pictures) and because of this, that is the bolt that broke highest so I think the lift had something to do with this for sure. If anyone could maybe link some instructions or provide me with their own instructions on how to uninstall those little things, I’d be grateful.
Does anyone know exactly what tools I will need to remove the hub lock? I’m looking at videos and they show huge sockets for the wheel lock nuts inside and weird shaped pliers but don’t mention any names.
Oddly enough NAPA should have those sockets in stock. I’d take a few photos of the part to show the idiot behind the counter. NAPA actually had the socket for our Dana-60 rear end in our old ’75 F-250. Wouldn’t surprise me if they had the one for yours.
I suspected something broke free–but that’s a bit more then I expected.
Worse case? Pick and Pull salvage yard.
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Yea, the plan is now to check out a few salvage yards since their online inventory mention about 3 GMC and Chevy’s around the same year as mine. About what size would you say yours was?
In this video, at about 5:08, I can only tell it is huge. But the guy in the video never says what size.
Can’t rightly remember. I have to work out of a barn on the families place about 30 miles north of where I live. All I remember is that it was huge and had rounded edges. Picked it up from NAPA. That much I know.
If you do a google or yahoo search for your hubs, and make–it’ll probably kick up on the ‘images’ part.
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