sings of needing new ball joints?

As the subject says what are the signs of neededing new ball joints? I ask this because my tahoe sometimes driving down the road the steering gose loose and then tigthens back up. I replaced the idler arm and the pitman arm and have had the alignment done a few times and the alignment never seems to hold.

bump

I had the same thing on my 95 tahoe and all it turned out to be was the old out of balance tires. I got a whole new set and it was perfect. Although I do think I need new ball joints too, when I drive slowly and turn I can hear the odd clunking noise.

Edited: 11/30/2006 5:14:09 PM by dbdrager

jack up each side of the truck under the control arm. just so that the tire is a few inches off the ground. put a pry bar under the tire and lift up on it.if the bal joint is bad you will feel it. also push in on the top side of the tire to feel for the upper joint. if only one joint is bad it's best to do both upper and lower. if one is bad the other is on it's way. hope this helps

I got new tires a year ago and ive had them rotated around 4months ago. Its just weird the truck will drive fine and then all of a sudden it gose loose as shit and fells like iam going to lose control and then it tightens up.

its a 98.