I can't believe it! The steering shaft rattle has absolutely disappeared! It is completely gone since I did the torsion bar adjustment. The truck rides totally different now to.....more like a nice stiff ride, but yet soft. Wow, I should of did this a long time ago!
For any of you that have that clunk in your steering, I would say the number one thing to do is the torsion bar adjustment first!

I will keep you all informed if anything changes in my Alpha....but for now it is a brand new truck!!!!

 

How many turns did you do sf ?

Cliff

 

I brought my passenger's side down about one full turn....which dropped it about 1" and raised my driver's side about a 1/4 turn. The last time I checked it was level.....
I will check it again in the morning. Seems as though the weight was shifted in the 3 towards the driver's side....and when I would hit a bump the right front would bounce and rattle......I'm assuming it was doing that. Maybe it was the shock causing the problem.
When I looked at my torsion bars, they were turned up pretty high from the factory.....I would say the passenger's side was almost as high as it could go. Maybe the dealership did the torsion bar lift before I got it. I know it was used as a demo....it was driven up to the Kanga Mangus Highway (spelling) in NH for a big event. It had 327 miles on the odometer when I bought it.

I'm not really sure....All i know is that it didn't clunk once through my steering wheel or pedal today.....it felt great!
Knock on wood that it stays that way!

 

Glad you got it worked out SF. See you don't need a dealer, just handle it yourself.

 

I think I'd still want that bent bolt & steering shaft yokereplaced, you know, the one in the photo here that you posted.

[IMG]local://upfiles/3977/F4B0F38530DD484198ECA57AB91F8DEE.jpg[/IMG]

 

SF - what is the dimension btwn the top of your front tire and the inside of the fender-flare?? I have an 08 base that was born in Nov 07 (bought it in march of 08) and after 310 miles i noticed an annoyingclunk in the floor that I could occassionally feel as a slight tap in the gas pedal....but most of the time I could feel it in the floor right over the torsion bars. Thought it may be the body mounts, but that didn't happen to be it. I am willing to try anything (as seen since it is 2:15am and I am searching for solutions instead of sleeping)....I will try bringing the truck down a bit on each side. WhenI got the truck, I raised the drivers side one full turn to level with passengers side. Maybe I'll put the driver's side back down 1 turn and then bring pass side down to match. I think 1 turn was about 1/2" to 5/8" or so. Keep fingers crossed.[sm=smiley11.gif]

 

glad to hear it worked for you. it didnt solve my problem.

 

joewcob3,
I'll have to go measure for you....I forgot the measurements. I also had the bent bolt and upper steering shaft problem, which gave me a lot of the clunking. I have since had both of those things fixed, and it's even better....the only thing that hasn't been done yet is the lower steering shaft, but it isn't bad enough to warrant the repair. You may want to check the upper steering shaft coupling where the bolt goes through, and make sure there is a bushing in there! Look at the pics above for reference........mine was missing but that was because of a bad dealership repair......

 

Joe:
When measuring for a torsion adjustment always measure from the center of the wheel hub to the fender lip. Those are two true measuring points that won't give due to side wall flex.

 

Thanks for the info on how to measure -- I did raise my hummer an extra inch this evening since lowering it didn't help a bit. I figured that maybe the front jounce bumpers werehitting the lower ctrl arm prematurely and rubbing/creaking/clunking........no luck again.

I have noticed that the thumping/clunking is getting worse each day (not real hot here...just low 70's) and today I could feel an occassional tapping in the accel pedal and in the floor just under the brake pedal. It first started 2 weeks ago going into the parking structure at work and hitting a speedbump, then feeling like something under my feet was loose and scraping. For 2 weeks, I would only feel it in the floor (around where the hummer logo in the floormat is), then last night I started feeling it on almost every right and left turn in parking lots and at intersections. This morning it started tapping in the accelerator pedal and under the brake pedal.

Maybe it is the steering shaft issue that the '07 hummers are having. Maybe since mine was built in 11/07, mine still has an old shaft. I notice that the lower part of the shaft has a blue dot on one side and a yellow dot on the other -- can't find/see a part number on the shaft. Was told by a few engineers that my truck, being an 08, should not have this problem. I think I recall a few 08 drivers posting a problem that the new steering shaft fixed and a few that it didn't fix. Going to dealertomorrow -- I hope this is the fix I need....I don't want to put up with this for 3 more years -- this is the only unwanted noise in this truck -- it is silent when moving otherwise.

If anyone has an 08 that was made on or before 11/07, and had this clunk issue, let me know if the new designed steering i-shaft fixed the problem. IF not, did you ever get it fixed?

Thanks