The steering in my 02 HD is pretty sloppy.

Replaced the inner/outer tie rods and upper ball joints. Little to no help.

Seems that the gearbox has a lot of play. Tightened up the backlash a touch and it helped some. But it seems that the steering shaft has to turn a good 1/4 turn before the pitman arm starts to move.

Heard something about the splines in the input side of the gearbox wearing out ?

This has been going on for a while but is to the point that I need to fix it.

I had a similar problem with my '02. In my case the splines on the output were worn. I replaced my pitman arm and that made a big difference.

Idler and Pitman arms are notorious for wearing out.....Check em and replace em.

Idler and Pitman arms are notorious for wearing out.....Check em and replace em.

Thanks for the help guys. Keep `um coming.

Did not mention that I installed the Cognito leveling kit with the steering "system" upgrades. This is supposed to help with the linkage moving up and rotating. Bill Vista I believe wrote good things about this upgrade.

While I will not rule out the idler I am leaning towards the pitman and steering shaft. Will check them out.

The Cognito steering kit is a must for the Chevy "HD" Steering problems. I put one on my 05 Crew Cab when I did the lift and never had any wear issues with the Pitman/Idler, while all my friends who have similar trucks are replacing theirs.

I also did the HD Tie rod ends and dual stabilizer and got some really good results, even off road the truck tracked great.

I had a lot of problems after installing just a leveling kit. If you replace your pitman and idler arms, that should solve most of the problem. I just installed the Cognito upper control arms, heim joint tie rods, idler pivot assembly, and pitman idler support brackets with new MOOG pitman and idler arms, and MOOG lower ball joints, and the new upper control arms came with new ball joints that had a MOOG part number, so basically the only thing on my 2005 crew cab 2500hd that has to do with steering that we didn't replace was the gear box, and my truck has little to no play and the steering is extremely tight and handles like a dream for that kind of truck. I think it drives better than it did brand new. But yeah back to what you said your truck is doing I'd replace the pitman and idler arms.

x2 pitman and idler arm

x3 on the idler and pitman arm. seems like thats the number 1 wear item on the IFS chevys.

Your column is loose because of the ball bearing slodes in the unit. You can repir the column if your good with dismantleing things like that or you can get a used column for around 250$ and install it. After the lower dash trim is removed there are 5 wire plugs going to it that must be removed, first remove the retaning bolt that goes through the universal joint near floor....take this bolt all the way out and then slide the shaft out and down toward the floor.
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Hey guys, just wanted to say thanks.

Replaced the pitman, stabilizer and idler. drives almost like new.

Can`t complain. 100,000 miles just around the bend.

idler and pitman