Africaster
SILVER Star
Thanks for this Z, I’ll take you up on your kind offer (PM/DM me your details plse, PayPal OK?) and will send it on to @2001LC if not the source of issue. Appreciated BradI just went through the exact same symptoms with mine. The culprit was a rusty lower intermediate shaft U-joint. I went ahead and replaced one of the rack bushings as well(chickened out on the DS) along with the shaft. Completely solved the issue. Given your truck is NJ where mine spent most of it's life, I suspect you may have the same issue. Before replacing the rack, I'd inspect this to see how it looks, and ideally remove and rotate the joint to see how it feels.
Incidentally, I ordered the wrong intermediate shaft the first time around, part changed in '04, so if you want one for a '99 I have a brand new OEM one that I'd be happy go sell for significantly under the going rate.
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