Loose frontend when going over 55mph over bumps

[Gossamer]

I have changed my shocks and jacked up my 2wd '02 Tahoe while maintaining pressure on the frontend. Nothing seems loose but I can feel it through my steering wheel.
When going over a bump in the road on the highway the front end gets very shaky.
It is getting dangerous in my opinion.
Could this be a tie rod issue? No give in the tie rod when I try to move it, but something is wrong.
Ball joints have no give, hubs are tight, wheel bearings appear good.

 

[OR VietVet]

Correct way to check the steering linkage is to have a person in the driver's seat shake the steering wheel back and forth, from 9 to 3, and watch all pivot points of the tie rods and pitman and idler. Then, with engine off, you jack as close to the lower ball joint as you can and get the tire off the ground 1-2 inches and then use a long enough pry bar at 6 o'clock and apply up and down pressure and watch the ball joints for excessive play. You said you jacked up the front of the rig and maintained pressure on the front end? What does that mean? You have to unload the ball joints by jacking up as I stated and then check play. Otherwise the joints are loaded and that pressure will hide excessive play. Also, inspect all bushings.

 

[JollyRoger01]

What kind of condition is the pitman arm and idler arm in? I replace more of those front end parts at my shop than anything else. Something to keep in mind, if you have rear spring sag coupled with the factory crap panhard bar it WILL cause the front end to get loose when the suspension unloads.
Could you elaborate on shaky? Second question how many miles?

 

[Gossamer]

Steering Intermediate Shaft was bad.
Looks like a wide spread problem over the internet.
Surprised nobody knew about it.
Now safe to drive fast over bumps on curves on the highway.

 

[OR VietVet]

Lots of people know about it but usually there are smaller symptoms that are posted here first that lead to it. Your post was beyond that time and pointed to maybe more deeper problems. Anything in the steering system, including the intermediate shaft, would be checked during a steering linkage inspection. Let's put it this way, if a qualified tech was checking the steering system for problems and found the bad intermediate shaft first and did not finish the inspection by checking the rest of the steering system, would be doing you a disservice. Either way, I am glad it was found and fixed. Symptoms can lead to a whole plethora of things to look at.