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Another Steering Failure with Cognito Braces

07HDClassic

07HDClassic

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Location
Poulsbo/Pullman, WA
The other night I pulled into my apartment parking lot, started to make a turn to back into a parking spot and I heard a very loud pop from the front end. So I stopped to look what it was and realized that when I jumped out of the truck that my steering wheel turned unusually easy. I crawled under the to find my pitman arm ball joint had sheared in half and was about 4 inches from where it should have been. I went upstairs and got Devin (83gmck2500) and we proceeded to kick the tires straight enough to get the truck in the grass out of the way.

I remembered seeing a thread about steering problems with the Cognito braces... and about 5 mins later found this post by Schulte. http://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/showthread.php?t=13567

Today I had a chance to dig into the truck a bit more to see what had happened. I dropped the sway bar down and took the Cognito brace off of the pitman arm. I used a 2 jaw puller to pull the sheared end of the center link and attempted to take the pitman arm off. There is not enough room to get a puller on the pitman arm due to the cross member that is in the way.

I took a look at the Cognito brace and realized that it was bent on both ends. It seemed that the heim joint tried to pull itself through the brace. It also bent the heim joint as well. Here are some pictures of the process.

So at this point it looks like I will be pulling the steering box loose or out to get the pitman arm off... Unless anyone has some advice or has done it. And I'm trying to figure out the reasoning for this to happen.
 

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Like I said when you were over earlier, I'm surprised this happend and also glad it wasn't somewhere else where you would have been in an accident. Or in the woods for that matter.

I'm really surprised that the cognito brace is that bent... I'm glad we noticed the heim joint too. Wonder if the braces have been causing this or if it's more common than we know.....

At least you have a truck
(this one V) to run parts in. :D
 
Pictures don't quite do it justice, that cognito brace has some real interesting bends to it, as well as the heim's new curvature.
 
Devin's right, those bends are much worse in person when you can look at it from any angle. The heim wasn't too noticeable from one side, but when Brandon turned it over I was like woah.

Oh and for those who have to remove a pitman arm (and have access to the correct tools), use a circular cut-off wheel to cut a slit in the pitman arm and spread it with a chizel, it'll fall right off. Now if only the truck was at my house with the air-compressor, we could go get the correct air tool.
 
I was able to unbolt the steering box and collapse to column a couple of inches and get the puller on there.
 
So, the Cognito braces aren't holding up to well one might should say?
 
I've been holding off on them after Schutle had this problem, now you. Looks as if something needs reworking..
 
Yeah, while they look like a good idea, I'm wondering myself how good they actually are after seeing two trucks with the same problem....
 
ak diesel driver said:
by stiffening things up it might be concentrating the loads
Click to expand...

That's what I'm thinking.

But, I'm just speculating as I know nothing about the steering system up front.

Maybe NorCal Nick can chime in and we'll see what he has to say.
 
Nick might be on vacation but I'm sure he'll chime in.

Maybe these were defective parts.

Brandon, what exactly were you doing when these failed? Turning?
 
i have busted sector shafts on my little ford and my 1 tons, and seen it on many others.


alot of lifted chevies i work on have similar results one nicer truck(not one i worked with) was totalled after it rolled.


this is where hydro assist helps ...well potentially helps depending on configuration.

i for one believe full hydro on 40 plus tires or some semi duty stuff is really the minimum.

generally ime though 35's dont hurt the gm,s any. did this truck run a larger tire or get abused offroad often?
 
Yeah, Hopefully Nick can say something about them. I know Brandon bought them through him, and tried getting ahold of him but was unsucessful as of yet.
 
Unit453 said:
Nick might be on vacation but I'm sure he'll chime in.

Maybe these were defective parts.

Brandon, what exactly were you doing when these failed? Turning?
Click to expand...

I turned into my apartment parking lot, and started turning sharper to park and snap. So not really doing much out of the ordinary.

bobbywalter said:
i have busted sector shafts on my little ford and my 1 tons, and seen it on many others.


alot of lifted chevies i work on have similar results one nicer truck(not one i worked with) was totalled after it rolled.


this is where hydro assist helps ...well potentially helps depending on configuration.

i for one believe full hydro on 40 plus tires or some semi duty stuff is really the minimum.

generally ime though 35's dont hurt the gm,s any. did this truck run a larger tire or get abused offroad often?
Click to expand...

Since the lift it has always has had 35's. I go play around offroad occasionally, but I wouldn't call it abuse. Mainly driving down logging roads and technical driving in washouts at very low speeds
 
I figured that I would give you guys an update on the progress of the truck. I ended up taking the steering box out of the truck to get a better angle of approach on the pitman arm. I finally got it off with a heavy duty puller and a hammer. There was a guy on Diesel Place selling a brand new GM pitman arm so I bought that and it should be here on Saturday and Ill put it in then.

But I'm still unsure of the cause of this failure and really would like to know what happened. I am still trying to get a hold of Nor-Cal Nick to see if he has any advice or pointers on why I just destroyed a week old set of Cognito braces. At this point, it also looks like I may have even tweaked the Idler arm brace as well. Most likely I will put everything back together like factory with no braces... since mine won't even get close to fitting again.
 
Does anyone know why they are breaking or bending? I'm thinking about taking mine out.

When I installed mine it seemed like you could actually put a lot of extra stress on the joint if they are improperly installed. By tightining the 2 jam nuts on the heim joint you could pre stress it one way or the other if your not carefull.

Did anyone else notice this or am I wrong?
 
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