99 Tahoe Steering Box Issues

[Mike McCloskey]

I have a 99 Tahoe 2 door 4x4. The other day I replaced the steering box with a rebuilt AC Delco unit, and also replaced the lower steering shaft with a new one because the rag joint was sloppy. Bled the system appropriately. At very low speed, seems to work fine. Anything over about 10 mph, I notice that when I begin to turn the wheel, there is a momentary drag in the steering that goes away as I continue to turn. Any ideas on what this could be? Thanks for any response.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

I cannot directly assist you on this, but I would first want to ensure that you have fully bled the air out of the power steering system. I have seen recent posts where members outline a step-by-step procedure for bleeding air out of the power steering system. As I recall, it was a multi-step process, first with the truck's wheels off the ground, and then on the ground.

If you can outline specifically what you did to bleed the system, folks will chime in to verify it, or suggest additional steps that should be taken. If your process is verified, then folks will suggest other areas to look at.

 

[Mike McCloskey]

Thanks, yes, after replacing the gear box, I sucked all the old fluid out of both lines as well as the power steering pump reservoir with a vacuum pump, filled the reservoir up with fresh fluid, raised the front wheels off the ground and turned the steering wheel lock to lock a number of times, checked the level, started the engine, turned the wheel lock to lock, while checking and filling reservoir. At one point the fluid drained pretty quickly, made a whining noise. I quickly shut off the engine and noticed that the fluid level was low and cloudy (air bubbles). I refilled it, and went through the process again. The level is now good and stable and I don't see any more bubbles coming up.

 

[OR VietVet]

The whining noise is a sure sign of low fluid because you are hearing the aerate of the fluid that is in there and mixing with air and therefore bubbles. Plus, I never trust reman/rebuilt pumps or gear boxes that deal with pressures. New only, IMO. I bet the low fluid with the engine running may have caused a problem but who knows.

Here is a new box at RA but is out of stock for now. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=11541125&cc=1353721&jsn=2264 They are out of stock because people know and buy new instead of the reman pumps or boxes.

Plus, RA put up a new discount code that is good till July 12. It is in the "New Posts".

 

[Mike McCloskey]

Yeah, I knew the whining was low fluid, and it was only for a second or two before I shut the engine down. No whining now. All seems fine except for the problem I described.

 

[Larryjb]

I'm going to go on a limb and say it was a bad rebuild. I've had bad stuff from ACDelco before. They're not perfect. I had a new ACDelco starter motor (not a rebuild!) fall apart on me.

Somewhere, from a few years ago, I had a thread on steering work I did. I believe I used an ACDelco Professional box. However, the search function may or may not be working, so you may have to use Google:

site:tahoeyukonforum.com <search terms here>

 

[OR VietVet]

There is a rebuilt "professional" AC Delco box but only the one supplier for new that I posted the link for.

While I was at it I also looked at "Parts Geek" that I asked about in another thread and never got one response, and they only listed reman units and were higher priced than RA for the exact same steering gear boxes.

 

[Larryjb]

I recall now that the ACDelco Professional box I got was a rebuild, as Ron says. In fact, I also recall that I had an issue with one of the line threads and that it seemed to be cross threading, in spite of my being as careful as I could. I bought a thread chaser and carefully cleaned the threads, keeping the debris out. I was then able to reattach the line. I suspect that some one cross threaded it, returned it, and then it was sold to me. I sometimes think we Canadians seem to get a lot of "returns" because US companies know how hard it is for us to return stuff.

So Mike, it is entirely possible your box is faulty. In retrospect, it would probably have been a good idea for me to "flush" the box as if it were flushing an old system, to make sure there is no debris in the box or pump. However, my box is still holding up well.

 

[Mike McCloskey]

Hmmm, thanks for the reply. In the past, I have always heard that the ACDelco remans were great and the only ones you should choose. Lately however, as I have read around, I am hearing a different story. Perhaps the box is a bad rebuild. I guess I'll have to pull it and return it. Good idea Larry to flush it from the beginning.

 

[Mike McCloskey]

I think I'll try a Cardone box.