GM Suburban - Handling Issues

[Winston]

So, I bought an older suburban to pull my tent trailer and to take to the snow. It is a '97 with 110k miles on it. I replaced the shocks with KYB Monomax shocks, and that made a huge difference. However, it is still difficult to keep on the road. Floats a lot, etc. I know it is an old vehicle, but it just drives like crop. What parts tend to wear on these trucks? What can i do to improve the handling. It is the 1500 model with 4WD.

 

[duaneb9729]

sounds like you might have a pitman arm that is worn out, that would cause it to drift around.

 

[mechtech2]

Goofy tires will do this, also.
Tie rod ends, wheel bearings, and ball joints are high on the list of things to check, along with the pitman arm.

 

[wapacz]

my 95 gmc sierra felt floaty like at eway speeds. What ended up needing to be replaced was the torsion bar links. Made it much more solid. Though my steering wheel still has alot of play.

 

[OVERKILL]

If it has a steering box, these can develop play and cause this condition as well.

 

[MrCritical]

If the steering requires almost no effort there is an EVO sensor that goes out. It can make it pretty scary in turns.

 

[MolaKule]

Check the hubs, bearings, and CV joints as well.

 

[NYEngineer]

I have a 98 Yukon that now has 215,000 on it. Two years ago, I replaced the pitman arm, idler arm and tie rods. I felt like new again. Last spring, I needed to do upper ball joints, so while I was doing that, I replaced the upper and lower control arm bushings with poly units and also did the lower ball joints. Truck steers perfectly now.

 

[eljefino]

Best thing you can do is stick your head under the bumper and have someone rock the steering wheel back and forth, about 90 degrees will do it. You want enough to scrub the tires but not much more before going back through the "dead zone" of slop. Try it with and without the motor running/power steering. Look & listen for creaking and popping. If this does nothing for you jack the truck up and pull each wheel/tire in and out at 12 & 6 then 3 & 9 o'clock. Put the wheel/tire back down in rear wheel drive and put a lug wrench on and try to roll it front-to-rear to check out the control arm bushings.

We're spoiled by rack & pinion steering, a truck setup has a lot more bits that can each develop a little play... that adds up to a whole lot. My personal bet is lower ball joints or whichever set is load-bearing.

You can supposedly spot bad ball joints by an indicator in the grease zerk; I have not had luck with that personally.