Help needed- 1997 Bounder steering parts needed

Try a Place called Vision Salvage RV parts. Located in Kentucky. Go on web. Bring up the inventory. They have a complete 1998 Blunder they are parting out. Shows the whole unit. Phone number 606 843 9889. They ship all over.
Great place largest RV salvage place in U.S.

Good luck.

Try here alsox2 on the Supersteer bell crank. I'm sure they may even have the drag link.
Make sure you get the correct size ball joint there are two that are very similar.

Auto zone shows it all in stock and ebay has them as well

Try these people in the Portland, OR area. They have a good selection of P-30partsDSU Workhorse

Be extremely careful on the ball joints. They are different from many listings. The ones listed are not the correct taper. The correct ones are shorter and have sharper taper.

Bounder-ing wrote:
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!

Your chassis is most likely a 96, which should be the same, but do check the VIN.
Noise is most likely coming from worn sway bar bushings and easily changed.
If you still have air bags, I strongly suggest you go with after market coils from Henderson and be done with it. Saves long term pain and money in the long run, as well.
check here for what you need and do call the vendor before they ship, with any questions.... AMAZON
Here's another of many sources .... GM P30

HendersonLineUp is the way to go for you P32 steering and suspension parts. Robert Henderson's custom bell cranks have been a tremendous asset to the P32 community.
At 76, I still do some part time front end work and have a lot of respect for Robert.

Richard

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.

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

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.