My steering is kind of wandery, could be alignment, etc, who knows. But I want to cover all the bases first.

I found that my idler arm has a lot of vertical play on the chassis side., but the centerlinks, tie rod ends, and pitman arm are all nice and tight. Im sure they could be improved with new parts, but I dont see any play in them. Is just a loose idler arm enough to throw off the tracking of the car?

Maybe I should put the car on the ground and then look? The car's in the air in the moment, so maybe it's not stressing the joints enough to see any movement in them?

 

Some movement of the idler arm is normal.

To check the idler arm for wear, raise the car and put the wheels straight ahead. Push on the idler arm as close to the relay rod as possible with a 25lb force. The idler arm should not move more than 1/8" up or down.

 

Relay rod? Is that where it mounts to the centerlink or where it mounts to the frame?

 

Relay rod = in some designs, the thing that's called the center link in ours

Actually, it's the name of the part for when one there's only one tie rod and it hooks the steering gear to one spindle, and then that other rod goes from the one spindle to the other. Common on trucks, no longer found on cars, since independent front suspensions became standard, but the name still floats around

 

I'm surprised as much as 1/8 inch is acceptable. If it's worn enough that the wheels turn when you move it it definitely needs replacing.

 

Any movement in the idler arm that can be detected by hand is cause for replacement. Install a new one and you should note NO discernible movement.

Install a new one so that its link to the centerlink is at the same height, relative to the chassis, as the pitman arm's link. This keeps the centerlink even between the two. You can mark the location of the old one and re-install in that location, but there's no way to know, without checking, that the old one was installed at the correct height.

Pretty simple replacement job, and won't require an alignment afterwards.

 

..i 2nd that.

the GM tech info is close to the same info. its a simple fix.

 

From the 1987 Camaro FSM; checking and R&R:

 

Thank you!

Thanks to everyone else too. I will put it on the to-do list.