Sloppy Stearing

[Bushc]

My truck has a problem with slop in the steering. The passenger side tire was worn funny and needs a front end alignment. I replaced the passenger side tie rod end and there is still slop. Could it be that my Idler arm is shot because the other side seems to be just fine? Also my truck is a 1992 3/4 ton with 6 lugs and It does not have a steering stabilizer on it if I installed one would it help any?

[2500HD4X]

I would check the lash in the steering gear, check for slop in the steering shaft coupling/tie rods and definitely check out your ball joints. I just replaced my ball joints in my C10 and that was my biggest problem with the steering. Any alignment shop that you trust ought to be able to tell you where your steering slop is coming from. Sometimes you can get them to do an alignment check for little to no $ if you bring it back in to the same shop for the alignment-they credited my alignment check back against the cost of the alignment and basically told me what was wrong with my truck for free. If it is only wearing funny on the passenger side you might get lucky and it could just be your idler arm going out. The idler arm is pretty easy to replace and fairly reasonably priced. A good manual (Chilton or Haynes) is a good resource for troubleshooting the front suspension and has little tricks in getting that stuff apart, and also making sure you get it back together right, you don't want to be playing around with your steering! Loosing that would be really not good......Good luck with it.