Scoper50

I have an 03 Silverado 1500 Z71 with a steering problem I am stumped on. When going around a cloverleaf There is a clunk in the steering that I can hear, and feel through the steering wheel. I have replaced the Pitman Arm and the Idler arm. I have checked both tie rod ends and everyother ball joint in the steering linkage, and I am stumped as to what it could be, other than something in the steering gear itself. I saw in the TSB section of this site, that there is a bulletin, describing this problem, but as I expected, it doesn't actually allow you to read the fix for the problem. Can anybody help?

John86

sounds like ur intermediate steering shaft needs lubed. take it loose at the joint underneath the hood and yank on it a few times then bolt it back up. see that if will fix it. GM has a lot of problems with these.

Scoper50

I have done a little more research since I originally posted this. From what I have gathered, Chevy originally had a TSB for this problem, which involved replacing the upper intermediate shaft. But since Chevy didn't have adaquate parts for the large number of trucks out there, they came up with a band-aid temporary fix, which involved removing the upper intermediate shaft, shooting a tube of lube into it, and reinstalling it. I have looked at the service records from the previous owner of my truck and I have discoverd, that this procedure has already been performed. So I guess my next step would be to replace the entire shaft itself. (I'm assuming the new shaft has been updated to prevent this problem from happening again). From my research, the part number for the new shaft is 88963611. Has anybody else out there replaced this shaft? Did it fix your problem? I'd rather not buy the lube kit, considering the previous owner already did it, and the problem came back 3 years later. Also, if anybody has replaced the shaft itself, how much did it cost you? I'm assuming it's a dealer only part. I doubt the local auto parts stores carry this kind of thing. Anyways, let me know if anybody has any info.

John86

save ur $100 for a new shaft cuz the updated shaft still has the same problem. GM doesn't have a fix for this yet. just use the some regular lithium grease and shoot up in there it will work fine.

Scoper50

Where exactly do I shoot the grease? Do I need to remove the shaft from the truck to do this?

John86

u can if u want to but u don't have to. where it bolts together underneath the hood take it loose there. then use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull out a lil metal insert and then shoot the grease up in there and move it up and down a few times. make sure u don't rotate the shaft during all of this cuz u have the possiblity of breaking ur clock spring if it rotates to many times in any direction.

v1950

HI
Had the same problem with my 04 silverado.
Gm has a kit for the job. Has a needle to insert the grease ,special grease?, etc.
Don't recall part # sorry. They told me that it's just irritating not a safety issue??
kit is cheap and it takes 15 min to do.

John86

GM doesn't make that kit nemore cuz they made that revised I-shaft that still has the same problem. they tell us to replace the shaft but the noise comes back in about 15k mi.

Scoper50

What I was planning to do was shoot some lithium grease up there myself without using the GM Kit. Couldn't I just stick the tip of a grease gun into the shaftand do it that way? Or is it more complicated than that?

John86

if u just take it loose underneath the hood at that joint and yank on it a few times it will pull that grease back down and work for another 15k mi or so.