Help needed- 1997 Bounder steering parts needed

[Bounder-ing]

Hello all,
our mo-co-home, as the youngest calls it, needs some steering parts per shop's quote. The unit is a 1997 Fleetwood Bounder, 30ft, 454 gas, P3 chassis, 16,500lbs GVWR. It's our first motorhome, and while we/I did research them, I did not come across the difficulty in sourcing parts for them. i.e., parts being discontinued already.

While the unit tracks straight, has little steering play, no uneven tire wear, and is very easy to drive, it does make a racket going down the road so I don't doubt the shop's estimate.

1. Here's where I need most of your help please. Neither the shop nor I could find this discontinued "ROD KIT, STRG LNKG CONN, GM #19354911". Any ideas if there's a place where I can get this? I tried even many auto wrecks, but so far all of them did not keep an inventory of their motorhomes and would not search by chassis either.

2. I also need lower ball joints. Any suggestions for which ones to get?

3. Lastly, I need driver's side idler/bell crank, "ARM KIT STRG (CASTING #26033559 or #26053653, AC DELCO #26034753)". From what I read here Supersteer is the way to go. Any other suggestions?

I am fine buying from the US, although of course I'd prefer Canada due to rate exchange.

Thank you, and Happy 4th of July!

[mike_brez]

I highly doubt you need controll arms. Someone mentchioned that because they said the correct ball joint would be in it. I would just get the correct ball joint and press it in.

[Bounder-ing]

Rare Parts doesn't have control arms either for disc brakes on rear. They do for those with drums.

[Bounder-ing]

Nope,didn't think to ask for the number. I'll call tomorrow and post. The shop checked mine and they couldn't find any cracks so I stopped searching for them.

[enblethen]

Did super steer have the moog control arm part numbers?
Check with Rare Parts!

[Bounder-ing]

Thanks guys for the help and resources.
To add some info, one of the parts guys from SuperSteer said that they can't get the arms anymore, Moog doesn't have them in stock and there's no notice of when/if production resumes. He said the motorhome arms are different from the van ones, of course.

Once all the parts arrive I hope to have my MH sorted out for a couple years. After that I'll be looking for something that is more straight forward in terms of parts. I don't mind the cost, I knew things needed to be fixed, but this run around is a bit much.

[mike_brez]

Some good info on the P chassis

Here and Here

[Gjac]

Bounder-ing wrote:

Gjac wrote:
Be very careful when selecting Ball joints for your P-30 chassis. I have had two ball joint failures because a shop installed the wrong ball joints twice. One was at 60 mpg around a corner when the front end just collapsed and the MH almost rolled over. You probably won't find the correct OEM part number so you will look for the after market ones. Does you MH have disc brakes or drum brakes in the rear? The larger heavier P-30's had disc brakes the shorter lighter one had drum breaks. The ball joints are much different. If you have disc brakes on the rear of your P-30 chassis the part number you need is Moog K6511 for the lowers and K6174 for the uppers. Stay away from the Dorman ball joints they are all for the lighter chassis with drum breaks on the rear even though they say HD they are under size on the taper, this is what my shop at home installed and after about 5000 miles they work hardened from being loose in the taper and just failed. Henderson sells these ball joints. Also check your A arms for cracking. That is a whole other discussion. Good Luck.

Yikes, glad you're OK. I went to the local NAPA, trucks division, and the parts guy told me frankly that he'd rather not order stuff because it's not guaranteed to fit. I thought he was too lazy, but I was wrong. Thank you for the parts numbers and advice, appreciated. It does have the discs on all four, so your numbers are what I need.

I will look for arms, didn't realize that is an issue either.

If you need the arms you probably won't find the arms with the correct ball joint, said another way the arms will be correct but the ball joints will have to be replaced with the correct one. Check your ride height by measuring the distance between the bumper stop to the upper A arm you should have at least 1.5 ins on both sides.

[Bounder-ing]

Gjac wrote:
Be very careful when selecting Ball joints for your P-30 chassis. I have had two ball joint failures because a shop installed the wrong ball joints twice. One was at 60 mpg around a corner when the front end just collapsed and the MH almost rolled over. You probably won't find the correct OEM part number so you will look for the after market ones. Does you MH have disc brakes or drum brakes in the rear? The larger heavier P-30's had disc brakes the shorter lighter one had drum breaks. The ball joints are much different. If you have disc brakes on the rear of your P-30 chassis the part number you need is Moog K6511 for the lowers and K6174 for the uppers. Stay away from the Dorman ball joints they are all for the lighter chassis with drum breaks on the rear even though they say HD they are under size on the taper, this is what my shop at home installed and after about 5000 miles they work hardened from being loose in the taper and just failed. Henderson sells these ball joints. Also check your A arms for cracking. That is a whole other discussion. Good Luck.

Yikes, glad you're OK. I went to the local NAPA, trucks division, and the parts guy told me frankly that he'd rather not order stuff because it's not guaranteed to fit. I thought he was too lazy, but I was wrong. Thank you for the parts numbers and advice, appreciated. It does have the discs on all four, so your numbers are what I need.

I will look for arms, didn't realize that is an issue either.

[enblethen]

Yes, Gary! I saw them. I could not find my numbers.

[Gjac]

enblethen wrote:
Gary, I thought you would have the numbers.
OP: I would try to get new control arms with the right joints installed. Takes time and money to have new joints pressed in your control arms.

. Hi Bud, I provided the numbers in my post. Maybe lost in the detail. They are K6511 and K 6174.

[enblethen]

Gary, I thought you would have the numbers.
OP: I would try to get new control arms with the right joints installed. Takes time and money to have new joints pressed in your control arms.

[Gjac]

Be very careful when selecting Ball joints for your P-30 chassis. I have had two ball joint failures because a shop installed the wrong ball joints twice. One was at 60 mpg around a corner when the front end just collapsed and the MH almost rolled over. You probably won't find the correct OEM part number so you will look for the after market ones. Does you MH have disc brakes or drum brakes in the rear? The larger heavier P-30's had disc brakes the shorter lighter one had drum breaks. The ball joints are much different. If you have disc brakes on the rear of your P-30 chassis the part number you need is Moog K6511 for the lowers and K6174 for the uppers. Stay away from the Dorman ball joints they are all for the lighter chassis with drum breaks on the rear even though they say HD they are under size on the taper, this is what my shop at home installed and after about 5000 miles they work hardened from being loose in the taper and just failed. Henderson sells these ball joints. Also check your A arms for cracking. That is a whole other discussion. Good Luck.

[enblethen]

Fellow poster here GJAC had major issue with ball joints. This link to Rare Parts available through Auto zone. Don't trust anybody except Rare Parts or Moog to get the correct ones bases not only for MH, but its weight and type of brakes in rear. Rear brakes for some reason makes different on front suspension.
Rare parts

[Bounder-ing]

Many many thanks for all your suggestions, your informative and quick replies make me feel better about RVing. My wife and I used to travel lots before the kids were born, now we thought to give RVing a try to accommodate the kids and dogs. So far we like it.

With your help I figured out what threw me off with the draglink. Based on my blown up suspension image from GM it seemed the draglink has an opening on the left side, and all I found was of course without, that hole was related to an adjacent part.

Tropical36, thank you for the advice on airbags. Previous owner had them removed and installed new springs. To my untrained eye the front is low, but this is on the back burner for now because the handling is great. I compare it to a previous E350 conversion van that wondered all over. I downloaded a pdf on how to measure this properly, will check it out later. Now I'm busy redoing the roof rubber and getting the steering sorted out. Plus the kids love the RV, we're busy doing short 3-5 days trips.

Richard, congrats on doing the work yourself. What's going on with PNW, there are many great shops there 🙂 It's too bad they're about 1000 miles away. We were planning on going on a few weeks trip in the Rockies come August, on the Canadian side, but now I'm mapping out detours South. I didn't have a great experience with the shop who did the inspection, in their defense they work on semis not on RVs, but I'm limited given the rural area we live in.

I start to understand that I need to find a good RV shop. Any suggestions closer to Minot ND?

Ball joints wise, is going by VIN the way to go? I'm not sure how to tell the difference. Enblethen, Mike?

Thank you.