i'm getting a strange noise when turning the wheel from left to right almost like a crunching sound, can be felt in the wheel, and ideas? one guy said something about bearings in the upper strut mount?

that might be your intermediate shaft....

take a look at the sticky at the top of the page....

dont jump to conclusions.. this is also very possibly a strut bearing.

Do you feel it aswell as hear it?
What are the conditions that this occurs? Slow hard turns? At a stop? can you pop it back and forth with the crunching noise?

I've got a bad right strut mount, and it doesn't make a crunching noise, but a definate hollow pop after going over a bump. If I drive slowly over a narrow speed bump, not the wide ones, it will pop when comming down from the speed bump after going over it. Sometimes it will pop when making a left turn, because of the left turn putting a load on the right strut mount.

Your situation sounds more like a steering rack going out, but that'* just my best guess.

The worst strut bearings I had were on my '91 Bonneville, and it caused the steering to pull like crazy.

To check the strut bearings, you could try this...
Reach over the top of the wheel and touch the top of the coil spring. Have someone else slowly turn the steering. The spring will rotate smoothly with the tire. If it catches or jerks, you could have bad strut bearings.

(It doesn't work with the tire off the ground)

Another thing I should mention is that a neighbor of mine who is a GM master tech, told me that on our type suspensions, the front upper strut mount is what carries the load; meaning, it'* what'* under the most amount of stress.

Every suspension design has a component that carries the load. On some GM rear wheel drive designs, with the front coil spring between the frame and the lower control arm, it'* the lower ball joint that carries the load.

I'd be inclined to agree with Pat that it is likely the intermediate shaft, mostly because so far we've seen more of that problem than the strut bearing. But, as toasty suggests, when it does it can be important. The link at the top will give you the information you need to confirm, or eliminate that as the problem.

thanks for all the feedback, it only makes the crunching/popping noise when i'm pulling in and out of parking spots, or driving slowly around a parking lot, and yes i can feel it coming back through the steering wheel, and if i drive the car hard through twisty turnies the power steering pump starts moaning, lots of power steering fluid in the pump, seems to stop moaning after 15 minutes or so, could this be related? oh, one more thing sometimes pulling out of my parking spot the power steering seems to lock for a second, feels like trying to turn the wheel when your parked next to a curb, i'm gettin worried now. :(

Did you check out the sticky at the top of the page about the intermediate shaft?

i'm sorry i'm not that good with these things, i dpn't see the "sticky" your talking about, help please lol.