Synergy Brace Issue

[techteacher]

A few weeks ago I was pulling in to a parking lot and my steering was all of a sudden groaning - only really did it though at slow speeds and sitting still.

I narrowed it down to the sector shaft brace, pulled it, cleaned it, retorqued everything, checked on grease - gave it the works. Only thing out of sorts besides being a little dirty was my pitman arm bolt had come loose a bit - it torqued back as easily as 184 ft/lbs will go and all was well. No more groaning.

Fast forward two weeks from that and it's back. Again, repeated everything - this time no issues with pitman nut being out of torque though. Initially no problems after a good cleaning. Next day - I'm getting minor groaning again.

Without the sector shaft brace portion - there is no groaning at all.

I've reached out to Synergy for advice and thought I would throw it out here too.

One thing I've wondered it what exactly is the grease doing? What is it greasing - is there supposed to be a moving part (maybe the gold ring on the inside?)??

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[kevman65]

The new nut you install on the sector shaft will rotate back and forth as you are turning the wheel.
The brass piece on the brace is a race for this to turn in. The grease is to lubricate this metal on metal rotating area.

 

[techteacher]

The new nut you install on the sector shaft will rotate back and forth as you are turning the wheel.
The brass piece on the brace is a race for this to turn in. The grease is to lubricate this metal on metal rotating area.

The brass section does not rotate at all by hand. Should it?

 

[LostWoods]

It should not. The brass is a fixed bushing which the nut will spin inside which is why it's critical you grease the fitting.

If you're getting noise from the bushing area, it's likely you're getting dirt and the like in there. I would think they'd have a tight enough fitment that it shouldn't be an issue but all you can really do is clean it either by adding more grease or by removing and wiping it down.

edit, just realized there's a video:

That sounds metal on metal to me but for that kind of noise, you can feel parts to see which are vibrating the worst to see who is involved. Sounds to me like it's the shaft brace so I would leave it attached but loosen the bolt and screw holding the pitman support piece to the main brace (just a turn or two) so that the piece can pivot a little and see if that takes the noise away.

If it does, that means your shaft brace is either misaligned or either your truck or the brace is out of tolerance.

 

[techteacher]

It should not. The brass is a fixed bushing which the nut will spin inside which is why it's critical you grease the fitting.

If you're getting noise from the bushing area, it's likely you're getting dirt and the like in there. I would think they'd have a tight enough fitment that it shouldn't be an issue but all you can really do is clean it either by adding more grease or by removing and wiping it down.

I was paranoid grease wasn't going in the first time I messed with it and pulled the zirk fitting off - looked like it was packed in there well. Trails have been pretty muddy thus far so pulling and cleaning it up may be the only resolve. Guess I could just run without it too if it turns into a thing that won't give up.

 

[kevman65]

The brass section does not rotate at all by hand. Should it?

No, the Sector Shaft nut/collar rotates inside the brass raceway. The brass raceway has the zert fitting going into it to provide grease for lubrication.

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