White knuckle ride

T

terry1

New member
Oct 26, 2013
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Well after a few dollars and a few months of work the Coach was safety certified and ready to make the 250km drive home. I had replaced all the
oversized 9.50 x 16.5 tires with new 8.75 x 16.5, new cv boots, new upper ball joints, new rear bearings and seals, all the fluids checked and
replaced everything checked that we could think of including some old school wheel alignment other then some play in the steering I was ready. It
drove around town like a dream I could not believe how easily it handle other then the steering feeling looser than my Rav 4. So we hit the highway
air ride set to travel. Well it was like the front end was floating in the air like when you overload a truck and the front end lifts, the steering so
loose that the I was constantly moving the wheel side to side and the coach was all over the road. Best I coul d manage was 40 miles an hr. after 20
miles or so I decide to check the ride height and the rear looked a little high and I had read that on the highway the rear was actually supposed to
be lower than front a bit. So I dropped the rear as low as seemed ok and tried again. The steering firmed up a bit and on nice smooth road I was able
to get her to 50 miles/hr then we hit an older portion of the road with lots of ruts and bumps and it was back to being all over the road. We made our
two hr drive in 4 1/2 hrs and pulled into the driveway with a feeling of relieve and my wife looked at me and said I will never get in this thing
again until u fix it. So I need help where do I begin. We tightened everything possible in steering colum cleaned and regressed it with a new lower
boot before the trip. So is it time to rebuild it all?
--
Terry
75 Glenbrook
Dauphin, Manitoba
 
Start with steering parts--particularly tie-rod ends and the things they
attack to. While parked, have your wife wiggle the steering wheel back and
forth through its slack. If any of those parts are loose, you'll be able to
see (or feel) differential movement. That has to be fixed first, if there
is any looseness.

Then, do an alignment, including a careful check of ride height, front and
rear. There should be no toe-out at all, but front drivers don't want
toe-in, either. If you set it for zero toe-in, and those tie rods or other
parts are loose, it will toe out on the road, creating exactly what you
describe. That's why the loose parts have to be replaced first. You can't
compensate for loose parts with toe-in, or you'll get more torque steer
with front drive. Toe-out, whatever is causing it, seems a likely culprit.

You probably already checked your control-arm bushings if you replaced ball
joints.

If all that is okay, check your steering gearbox, which to my thinking has
a subtler effect. A loose box can allow play, but not so much wild
self-steering as you describe.

Another relative subtlety: what are your tire pressures?

Loose rear bogies sometimes get blamed, but I think those are way down on
the list.

Rick "eventually, it will all get replaced or rebuilt, but first things
first" Denney

> Well after a few dollars and a few months of work the Coach was safety
> certified and ready to make the 250km drive home. I had replaced all the
> oversized 9.50 x 16.5 tires with new 8.75 x 16.5, new cv boots, new upper
> ball joints, new rear bearings and seals, all the fluids checked and
> replaced everything checked that we could think of including some old
> school wheel alignment other then some play in the steering I was ready. It
> drove around town like a dream I could not believe how easily it handle
> other then the steering feeling looser than my Rav 4. So we hit the highway
> air ride set to travel. Well it was like the front end was floating in the
> air like when you overload a truck and the front end lifts, the steering so
> loose that the I was constantly moving the wheel side to side and the
> coach was all over the road. Best I coul d manage was 40 miles an hr. after
> 20
> miles or so I decide to check the ride height and the rear looked a little
> high and I had read that on the highway the rear was actually supposed to
> be lower than front a bit. So I dropped the rear as low as seemed ok and
> tried again. The steering firmed up a bit and on nice smooth road I was able
> to get her to 50 miles/hr then we hit an older portion of the road with
> lots of ruts and bumps and it was back to being all over the road. We made
> our
> two hr drive in 4 1/2 hrs and pulled into the driveway with a feeling of
> relieve and my wife looked at me and said I will never get in this thing
> again until u fix it. So I need help where do I begin. We tightened
> everything possible in steering colum cleaned and regressed it with a new
> lower
> boot before the trip. So is it time to rebuild it all?
> --
> Terry
> 75 Glenbrook
> Dauphin, Manitoba
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>
--
Rick Denney
73 x-Glacier 230 "Jaws"
Off-list email to rick at rickdenney dot com
 
Dang it: attack = attach, plus all the other typos you'll have to figure
out.

Rick "doggone iPhone" Denney

> Start with steering parts--particularly tie-rod ends and the things they
> attack to. While parked, have your wife wiggle the steering wheel back and
> forth through its slack. If any of those parts are loose, you'll be able to
> see (or feel) differential movement. That has to be fixed first, if there
> is any looseness.
>
> Then, do an alignment, including a careful check of ride height, front and
> rear. There should be no toe-out at all, but front drivers don't want
> toe-in, either. If you set it for zero toe-in, and those tie rods or other
> parts are loose, it will toe out on the road, creating exactly what you
> describe. That's why the loose parts have to be replaced first. You can't
> compensate for loose parts with toe-in, or you'll get more torque steer
> with front drive. Toe-out, whatever is causing it, seems a likely culprit.
>
> You probably already checked your control-arm bushings if you replaced
> ball joints.
>
> If all that is okay, check your steering gearbox, which to my thinking has
> a subtler effect. A loose box can allow play, but not so much wild
> self-steering as you describe.
>
> Another relative subtlety: what are your tire pressures?
>
> Loose rear bogies sometimes get blamed, but I think those are way down on
> the list.
>
> Rick "eventually, it will all get replaced or rebuilt, but first things
> first" Denney
>
>

>
>> Well after a few dollars and a few months of work the Coach was safety
>> certified and ready to make the 250km drive home. I had replaced all the
>> oversized 9.50 x 16.5 tires with new 8.75 x 16.5, new cv boots, new
>> upper ball joints, new rear bearings and seals, all the fluids checked and
>> replaced everything checked that we could think of including some old
>> school wheel alignment other then some play in the steering I was ready. It
>> drove around town like a dream I could not believe how easily it handle
>> other then the steering feeling looser than my Rav 4. So we hit the highway
>> air ride set to travel. Well it was like the front end was floating in
>> the air like when you overload a truck and the front end lifts, the
>> steering so
>> loose that the I was constantly moving the wheel side to side and the
>> coach was all over the road. Best I coul d manage was 40 miles an hr. after
>> 20
>> miles or so I decide to check the ride height and the rear looked a
>> little high and I had read that on the highway the rear was actually
>> supposed to
>> be lower than front a bit. So I dropped the rear as low as seemed ok and
>> tried again. The steering firmed up a bit and on nice smooth road I was able
>> to get her to 50 miles/hr then we hit an older portion of the road with
>> lots of ruts and bumps and it was back to being all over the road. We made
>> our
>> two hr drive in 4 1/2 hrs and pulled into the driveway with a feeling of
>> relieve and my wife looked at me and said I will never get in this thing
>> again until u fix it. So I need help where do I begin. We tightened
>> everything possible in steering colum cleaned and regressed it with a new
>> lower
>> boot before the trip. So is it time to rebuild it all?
>> --
>> Terry
>> 75 Glenbrook
>> Dauphin, Manitoba
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> GMCnet mailing list
>> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
>> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>>
> --
> Rick Denney
> 73 x-Glacier 230 "Jaws"
> Off-list email to rick at rickdenney dot com
>
--
Rick Denney
73 x-Glacier 230 "Jaws"
Off-list email to rick at rickdenney dot com
 
Woo hoo you made it! After a dump truck nearly windswept me off a downhill on my maiden voyage, my wife nearly wrote ours off as well...

Good news is that is not normal, and with time and attention (and dollars) it can be fixed.

http://www.gmceast.com/technical/Mueller_Steering_Inspection_Guide.pdf

The best, first thing I did was a new steering damper. Less than $40 and until I had time, knowledge and experience (or access to those who do) it
helped the other loose parts not get so wonky.

Not sure how much learning/reading you have already done. Download the manuals off bdub's site. Talk to Alex Ferrara, Dave Lenzi, either of the Jims.
Get the parts interchange from GMCMI site.

Camp in the driveway to test house systems and have fun. If it will go 40 mph, find a close campground and go camping locally! Enjoy what does work
while you get it the way you want it.
--
1975 Glenbrook, 1978 Royale rear bath
Raleigh, NC
 
Nope just find the bad parts. Then set tire pressure, check ride heights and set alignment to zero camber, as much equal caster you can get without
camber going negative, ( typically about 4 degrees) then set toe to zero with steering box on center. Did you follow the Rob Mueller writeup on
checking front end? Also go to Thedovetailjoint.com and read Jerry Work's writeup on alignment.
--
John Lebetski
Woodstock, IL
77 Eleganza II
 
Terry,

Along with the procedure below you need to set the steering box on center
with the wheels going straight ahead.

From what I learned about this from Dave Lenzi and Alex Ferrara I wrote a
procedure to do this, It worked fine on two GMC's here in Australia but when
I sent it to A GMCer in the USA it had problems. I have not had the time to
re-write the procedure to date.

Regards,
Rob M.
The Pedantic Mechanic
USAussie - Downunder
AUS '75 Avion - The Blue Streak TZE365V100428
USA '75 Avion - Double Trouble TZE365V100426
USA '77 Kingsley - TZE 267V100808

-----Original Message-----
From: Gmclist [mailto:gmclist-bounces] On Behalf Of Tyler
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:28 AM
To: gmclist
Subject: Re: [GMCnet] White knuckle ride

Woo hoo you made it! After a dump truck nearly windswept me off a downhill
on my maiden voyage, my wife nearly wrote ours off as well...

Good news is that is not normal, and with time and attention (and dollars)
it can be fixed.

http://www.gmceast.com/technical/Mueller_Steering_Inspection_Guide.pdf

The best, first thing I did was a new steering damper. Less than $40 and
until I had time, knowledge and experience (or access to those who do) it
helped the other loose parts not get so wonky.

Not sure how much learning/reading you have already done. Download the
manuals off bdub's site. Talk to Alex Ferrara, Dave Lenzi, either of the
Jims.
Get the parts interchange from GMCMI site.

Camp in the driveway to test house systems and have fun. If it will go 40
mph, find a close campground and go camping locally! Enjoy what does work
while you get it the way you want it.
--
1975 Glenbrook, 1978 Royale rear bath
Raleigh, NC

_______________________________________________
GMCnet mailing list
Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
 
Go through the mueller steering check.

But start by really checking the front end alinement, but you need guidance on that. Ride height has alot to donwith it, and most shops do nit
understand that.

You are describing a situation that seems really excessive. Make sure ride height is even left to right and you are sitting a little lower in the
rear then the front.

Take some pictures of the steering box and send to alex. There is standard looseness, and the what you have there is something way wrong. My guess
is way off on the alinement since you have new front end parts.
--
Jon Roche
75 palm beach
St. Cloud, MN
http://lqqkatjon.blogspot.com/
 
Talk to Alex Ferrara - The GMC Steering Expert out of Florida - He fixed two of my GMC's and it improved the steering, ride, and handling significantly.
Thanks Alex,
Mike/The Corvair a holic

Sent from my iPhone

>
> Terry,
>
> Along with the procedure below you need to set the steering box on center
> with the wheels going straight ahead.
>
> From what I learned about this from Dave Lenzi and Alex Ferrara I wrote a
> procedure to do this, It worked fine on two GMC's here in Australia but when
> I sent it to A GMCer in the USA it had problems. I have not had the time to
> re-write the procedure to date.
>
> Regards,
> Rob M.
> The Pedantic Mechanic
> USAussie - Downunder
> AUS '75 Avion - The Blue Streak TZE365V100428
> USA '75 Avion - Double Trouble TZE365V100426
> USA '77 Kingsley - TZE 267V100808
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gmclist [mailto:gmclist-bounces] On Behalf Of Tyler
> Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2017 12:28 AM
> To: gmclist
> Subject: Re: [GMCnet] White knuckle ride
>
> Woo hoo you made it! After a dump truck nearly windswept me off a downhill
> on my maiden voyage, my wife nearly wrote ours off as well...
>
> Good news is that is not normal, and with time and attention (and dollars)
> it can be fixed.
>
> http://www.gmceast.com/technical/Mueller_Steering_Inspection_Guide.pdf
>
> The best, first thing I did was a new steering damper. Less than $40 and
> until I had time, knowledge and experience (or access to those who do) it
> helped the other loose parts not get so wonky.
>
> Not sure how much learning/reading you have already done. Download the
> manuals off bdub's site. Talk to Alex Ferrara, Dave Lenzi, either of the
> Jims.
> Get the parts interchange from GMCMI site.
>
> Camp in the driveway to test house systems and have fun. If it will go 40
> mph, find a close campground and go camping locally! Enjoy what does work
> while you get it the way you want it.
> --
> 1975 Glenbrook, 1978 Royale rear bath
> Raleigh, NC
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
 
I agree with Jon's guess.

Rob's write-up is good for checking everything, but it doesn't prioritize
things that might be wrong with these particular symptoms. Wild
self-steering is probably not looseness in the steering gear box, and even
if the gear box isn't properly centered, it will tend to drift when hands
off, not self-steer in random directions.

Caster affects the natural tendency to remain centered, and that's the
reason replacements use offset bushings. But even the stock setup, which is
quite limited in its ability to adjust caster, shouldn't make the knuckles
go white.

But toe-out will definitely cause steering instability, and it will get
worse on coast down or hard braking. Depending on what is causing the
toe-out, acceleration might actually improve it a bit. Ride height also
affects stability, but to a lesser extent. Excessive tire pressures make
any steering problem more noticeable, too.

So, focus on those things that cause toe-out first, which is tie-rod ends
first and foremost, bushings to a lesser extent, and just plain bad
alignment. Use Rob's procedures for checking for looseness in those parts.
Loose tie-rod ends will make alignment impossible, so that has to be fixed
before an alignment.

Rick "cause and effect" Denney

> Go through the mueller steering check.
>
> But start by really checking the front end alinement, but you need
> guidance on that. Ride height has alot to donwith it, and most shops do nit
> understand that.
>
> You are describing a situation that seems really excessive. Make sure
> ride height is even left to right and you are sitting a little lower in the
> rear then the front.
>
> Take some pictures of the steering box and send to alex. There is
> standard looseness, and the what you have there is something way wrong.
> My guess
> is way off on the alinement since you have new front end parts.
> --
> Jon Roche
> 75 palm beach
> St. Cloud, MN
> http://lqqkatjon.blogspot.com/
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>

--
'73 X-Glacier 230 "Jaws"
Northern Virginia
Offlist email: rick at rickdenney dot com
 
Terry

Start simple - what were your tire pressures?

Dennis

> Well after a few dollars and a few months of work the Coach was safety certified and ready to make the 250km drive home. I had replaced all the
> oversized 9.50 x 16.5 tires with new 8.75 x 16.5, new cv boots, new upper ball joints, new rear bearings and seals, all the fluids checked and
> replaced everything checked that we could think of including some old school wheel alignment other then some play in the steering I was ready. It
> drove around town like a dream I could not believe how easily it handle other then the steering feeling looser than my Rav 4. So we hit the highway
> air ride set to travel. Well it was like the front end was floating in the air like when you overload a truck and the front end lifts, the steering
> so loose that the I was constantly moving the wheel side to side and the coach was all over the road. Best I coul d manage was 40 miles an hr. after
> 20 miles or so I decide to check the ride height and the rear looked a little high and I had read that on the highway the rear was actually supposed
> to be lower than front a bit. So I dropped the rear as low as seemed ok and tried again. The steering firmed up a bit and on nice smooth road I was
> able to get her to 50 miles/hr then we hit an older portion of the road with lots of ruts and bumps and it was back to being all over the road. We
> made our two hr drive in 4 1/2 hrs and pulled into the driveway with a feeling of relieve and my wife looked at me and said I will never get in
> this thing again until u fix it. So I need help where do I begin. We tightened everything possible in steering colum cleaned and regressed it with a
> new lower boot before the trip. So is it time to rebuild it all?

--
Dennis S
73 Painted Desert 230
Memphis TN Metro
 
No alignment on a GMC will do much if you are NOT AT FACTORY RIDE HEIGHT
BEFORE YOU ALIGN IT. Yes, I am shouting. I don't give a damn what you think
about the appearance of the coach. It is not about appearance. It is about
geometry. And weight transfer, and anti-dive. Tires have changed since GMC
manuals were written and specs have too.
Steering wander and groove running are symptoms of worn parts. The wear In
tie rods and ball joints is subtle. They wear most where they move the
most. Full lock left and right is NOT where you will find the most wear.
STRAIGHT AHEAD is where you will find it. As you drive down the road, and
you make slight adjustments with the steering wheel to correct lane
positioning, you are placing wear on all the components from the steering
wheel to the tires. A TINY BIT OF WEAR IN 5 COMPONENTS ADD UP TO A BUNCH OF
WEAR OVERALL. Tire wear, tire pressure, alignment, ride height, control arm
bushings, ball joints, shock absorbers, tie rod ends, idler arm bushings,
drag link joints, steering box, intermediate joints in the column, all
accumulate wear. A bit here, a bit there, adds up to white knuckle driving.
Check the system from end to end. You will find it. A good driving coach
should 1 hand steer comfortably on good roads at 70 mph.
Jim Hupy
Salem, Or
78 GMC ROYALE 403

> Terry
>
> Start simple - what were your tire pressures?
>
> Dennis
>

> > Well after a few dollars and a few months of work the Coach was safety
> certified and ready to make the 250km drive home. I had replaced all the
> > oversized 9.50 x 16.5 tires with new 8.75 x 16.5, new cv boots, new
> upper ball joints, new rear bearings and seals, all the fluids checked and
> > replaced everything checked that we could think of including some old
> school wheel alignment other then some play in the steering I was ready. It
> > drove around town like a dream I could not believe how easily it handle
> other then the steering feeling looser than my Rav 4. So we hit the highway
> > air ride set to travel. Well it was like the front end was floating in
> the air like when you overload a truck and the front end lifts, the steering
> > so loose that the I was constantly moving the wheel side to side and the
> coach was all over the road. Best I coul d manage was 40 miles an hr. after
> > 20 miles or so I decide to check the ride height and the rear looked a
> little high and I had read that on the highway the rear was actually
> supposed
> > to be lower than front a bit. So I dropped the rear as low as seemed ok
> and tried again. The steering firmed up a bit and on nice smooth road I was
> > able to get her to 50 miles/hr then we hit an older portion of the road
> with lots of ruts and bumps and it was back to being all over the road. We
> > made our two hr drive in 4 1/2 hrs and pulled into the driveway with a
> feeling of relieve and my wife looked at me and said I will never get in
> > this thing again until u fix it. So I need help where do I begin. We
> tightened everything possible in steering colum cleaned and regressed it
> with a
> > new lower boot before the trip. So is it time to rebuild it all?
>
>
> --
> Dennis S
> 73 Painted Desert 230
> Memphis TN Metro
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>
 
> ...While parked, have your wife wiggle the steering wheel back and forth through its slack. If any of those parts are loose, you'll be able to see
> (or feel) differential movement. That has to be fixed first, if there is any looseness. ...

Not many marriages can survive things like that. Bleeding brakes is worse, but why take chances like that.

Find someone other than the wife to help.

What everyone else is saying is probably right. What I haven't seen posted:

"Travel" on the ride height control might not be right. Set the ride height manually. Adjust the height control valve as necessary.

Lower the tire pressure from 80PSI down to 65. If you can weigh all four "axles", read here: http://bdub.net/gmcmotorhome.info/tires.html

Check the slop in the rear bogie pins. IIRC the manual says 1/8" at the end of the arm. That's only a few thousandths maybe in the pin/bushing.

A surprising number of steering problems originate at the rear wheels.
--
73 23' Sequoia 4 Sale
73 23' CanyonLands Parts Unit 4 Sale
Upper Alabama
"Every day I become more convinced that I am the only person left on the planet that recognizes nonsense for what it is."
 
Hi John and others

My web site is Jerrywork.com. My business is the dovetail joint but that URL was not available when I needed it

Jerry Work
Kerby, OR
.........
eup on
checking front end? Also go to Thedovetailjoint.com and read Jerry Work's writeup on alignment.
--
John Lebetski
Woodstock, IL
77 Eleganza II
.......
 
Terry,

Your story is very familiar, so I am going to ask you to do an very simple and effective diagnosis.

With either the front jacked up, or the engine running (so you can grind the tires on the pavement), spin the steering wheel lock to lock. Count the
turns and take it back by half. This should be straight ahead. If the wheel is not straight ahead, that is part of your problem, but the rest could
still be hidden. So, pop off the horn button and look for a chisel mark in the top of the steering shaft. If that is not straight ahead, there is a
simple problem that will not be hard to fix, but it may take some time (and no new parts). Rather than go into it now, I will refer you to manual
X7525 section section 9 page 39 figure 64.

The problem is that many front end guys are uninformed. So, when the steering wheel is not straight, they pop it off and put it back on straight. In
a GMC, this is a disaster. If it has happened to your coach, we can fix it.

Matt
--
Matt & Mary Colie - '73 Glacier 23 - Members GMCMI, GMCGL, GMCES
Still Loving OE Rear Drum Brakes with Applied Control Arms
SE Michigan - Twixt A2 and Detroit
 
Thanks everyone I have been out cleaning and doing a little demolition on the interior so just reading all the posts. My tire pressure was checked and
set before we left 65 in front and 60 in the back. I had a old style garage check on the alignment and adjust a few things and we had went threw the
front end fairly extensively when replacing shocks and ball joints. But when working outside on driveways we could have missed getting something right
and I am not sure where the tech had the ride height set when adjusting alignment and he did say there was a potential problem in steering box. There
was also some play in the intermediate shaft. So now that we know it's not working I will start the process of fixing it.
--
Terry
75 Glenbrook
Dauphin, Manitoba
 
All of the above were great suggestion. Start with the basic and simple stuff.

The tire pressures should be set according to weight on each axle. Many times the front wheels and rear wheels are set to different pressures. If
you do not know the weight on each wheel then I suggest that you start out at 65PSI tire pressure on each wheel (front and back). Do NOT over inflate
or you will be driving all over the road.

The next item is to check the ride heights. Do not run the rear ride height high on the highway. Get the rears set exactly to spec. Sometimes
this is a several step process. Set the height, measured at the frame not the body, and drive it. Come back and fine tune adjustment at the sensing
switches again. Do this several times with a 10 mile ride between each adjustment. Repeat until you have it perfect. There is a dead band area on
those sensors and you are looking for the place where they average out and normally run. Once they are set, you can go to the front and check them.

When checking the front, I normally set the rear of the coach frame on blocks so it can not move. Those blocks need to be EXACTLY the same height
and near the correct rear ride height. I believe that is 8 and 3/4" to the bottom of the frame where the measurement holes are. You only need to
rest the frame on the blocks to keep it from moving and not drop all of the rear weight on them. The blocks I use are single cutoff pieces of 2x4
positioned vertically of course.

Do not adjust anything on the front torsion bars until the rear is blocked. More on that later.


--
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
 
When I first drove my coach I thought it drove amazing, but I was comparing it to an old Class C, which if you don't know, is more like sailing than driving.

Then i learned it could drive like a car, a few new parts, some adjustments and it's nearly there.

The steering box and the pitman(?) link were my biggest issues.

I centered the steering box, and adjusted it, the new adjustable pitman link was nice to get things centered

I think the bogies might be a bit sloppy, I can feel the back end move on me going into a turn.

But I can drive in traffic on a rutted road with barriers on both sides one handed without being scared.

( the wife is still scared but I just tell her to close her eyes like I do :P )

________________________________
From: Gmclist on behalf of Terry
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2017 3:33:46 PM
To: gmclist
Subject: Re: [GMCnet] White knuckle ride

Thanks everyone I have been out cleaning and doing a little demolition on the interior so just reading all the posts. My tire pressure was checked and
set before we left 65 in front and 60 in the back. I had a old style garage check on the alignment and adjust a few things and we had went threw the
front end fairly extensively when replacing shocks and ball joints. But when working outside on driveways we could have missed getting something right
and I am not sure where the tech had the ride height set when adjusting alignment and he did say there was a potential problem in steering box. There
was also some play in the intermediate shaft. So now that we know it's not working I will start the process of fixing it.
--
Terry
75 Glenbrook
Dauphin, Manitoba

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Check for tightness on the relay arm bolt. On my Palm beach I have found
that it has backed out twice!!

> All of the above were great suggestion. Start with the basic and simple
> stuff.
>
> The tire pressures should be set according to weight on each axle. Many
> times the front wheels and rear wheels are set to different pressures. If
> you do not know the weight on each wheel then I suggest that you start out
> at 65PSI tire pressure on each wheel (front and back). Do NOT over inflate
> or you will be driving all over the road.
>
> The next item is to check the ride heights. Do not run the rear ride
> height high on the highway. Get the rears set exactly to spec. Sometimes
> this is a several step process. Set the height, measured at the frame not
> the body, and drive it. Come back and fine tune adjustment at the sensing
> switches again. Do this several times with a 10 mile ride between each
> adjustment. Repeat until you have it perfect. There is a dead band area on
> those sensors and you are looking for the place where they average out and
> normally run. Once they are set, you can go to the front and check them.
>
>
> When checking the front, I normally set the rear of the coach frame on
> blocks so it can not move. Those blocks need to be EXACTLY the same height
> and near the correct rear ride height. I believe that is 8 and 3/4" to
> the bottom of the frame where the measurement holes are. You only need to
> rest the frame on the blocks to keep it from moving and not drop all of
> the rear weight on them. The blocks I use are single cutoff pieces of 2x4
> positioned vertically of course.
>
> Do not adjust anything on the front torsion bars until the rear is
> blocked. More on that later.
>
>
>
> --
> Ken Burton - N9KB
> 76 Palm Beach
> Hebron, Indiana
>
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>

--
Bruce Hart
1976 Palm Beach
Milliken, Co
GMC=Got More Class
 
I picked up my coach in west Los Angeles. It had a few different things adding to pretty loose and sloppy steering. Then I drove it all the way
across LA at rush hour on the way home. It was "interesting". ;)

One thing that I didn't see mentioned in the above. Technique.

If you've never driven a similar vehicle before, the tendency will be to add WAY too much steering input to correct a slight deviation. By the time
the loose suspension and weight catch up to what you asked for, the coach is now heading in the other direction, only further. So the tendency is to
over-correct the other direction, and so on, until the coach is wagging down the road like there's a Richter 9 earthquake underway.

Of course, none of that might apply to the PO, but I thought I'd bring it up because I've seen examples where the same coach was easily driven across
the entire country by one driver, and then pronounced undrivable by another driver.

On mine, a combination of a very worn relay arm (replaced with a Lenzi unit), and adjustment of the steering box had it handling really well - a true
finger-and-thumb driver now, though nobody's going to mistake it for a sports car. ;) It's helpful to have someone turning the steering wheel back
and forth to where the front wheels are JUST starting to wiggle. Then look at each component of the system to see which ones move at the input a lot
more than the output. That will normally show you where the problems are.

Here's a short video I made (please forgive me calling it a "control arm") of my relay arm play, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jRxMjykiw4
--
Mark Hickey
Mesa, AZ
1978 Royale Center Kitchen
 
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