Not quite sure which section to put this in so I'll start here.. 1999 Tahoe 4 door 4x4 with Auto AWD option 163000 miles. In the front end I have a rattle, metal on metal sound and feel when hitting bumps in the road. The steering also has a slight wobble/vibration to it, but no all the time. The wobble/vibration mainly happens after I've gone around a good curve while driving down the road. I can also get the vibration at highway speeds but it was lessened after the new tires were initially put on and balanced twice.
I have pretty new Goodyear tires on it. I have replaced the steering sensor, front brake calipers, sway bar bushings and end links, and all 4 shocks. I've checked most of the stuff I could under the front end several times. There is no play in the ball joints (checking the wheels/tires at 12 and 6 o'clock). There's very slight movement side to side grabbing the tires at 3 and 9. I've checked the tie rod ends and they are solid. I've checked the pitman and idler arms and they, too, appear to be solid (had my wife move the steering wheel around while I watched their movement and didn't see anything wrong and have tried to move them up/down by hand with no movement.) All of the U-joints appear to be fine. At the transfer case, where the drive shaft goes into the transfer case, I can grab the drive shaft, wiggle it up and down hard, and get some slight movement which is enough to make a metal on metal sound. I don't know if it's supposed to have some slight play in the gear teeth there or not. I've tried to pry as well as possible on the control arms and such, but I don't get any movement there (not on a lift, just up off the floor with a floor jack.)
That's about all I can think of right now. Anybody have an idea what else to check or what the issue may be? I'd really like to get this thing fixed without having to put it in a shop and I don't have a ton of money to throw at random parts to try to figure out what's wrong with it.
I have pretty new Goodyear tires on it. I have replaced the steering sensor, front brake calipers, sway bar bushings and end links, and all 4 shocks. I've checked most of the stuff I could under the front end several times. There is no play in the ball joints (checking the wheels/tires at 12 and 6 o'clock). There's very slight movement side to side grabbing the tires at 3 and 9. I've checked the tie rod ends and they are solid. I've checked the pitman and idler arms and they, too, appear to be solid (had my wife move the steering wheel around while I watched their movement and didn't see anything wrong and have tried to move them up/down by hand with no movement.) All of the U-joints appear to be fine. At the transfer case, where the drive shaft goes into the transfer case, I can grab the drive shaft, wiggle it up and down hard, and get some slight movement which is enough to make a metal on metal sound. I don't know if it's supposed to have some slight play in the gear teeth there or not. I've tried to pry as well as possible on the control arms and such, but I don't get any movement there (not on a lift, just up off the floor with a floor jack.)
That's about all I can think of right now. Anybody have an idea what else to check or what the issue may be? I'd really like to get this thing fixed without having to put it in a shop and I don't have a ton of money to throw at random parts to try to figure out what's wrong with it.
