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Steering wheel play causes?



It's not 1" of play in the steering RACK, it's just the steering wheel that has a range of 1" of movement before the rack responds. And yes, the car is a DD so I'm driving it regularly.

Short of crawling under the car and pulling the tie rod boot off, is there a way to determine whether the rack is bad or if it's only bad inner tie rods? The rack isn't leaking that I can see, so my assumption is that the seals are still functional.
 
Had the car up on a rack today and started checking things. One big problem I found it that both nuts/bolts that secure the rack to the car were loose. Tightened those up nice and good. Determined that indeed my drivers side inner tie rod is bad. The drivers wheel wiggles back and forth but the passenger wheel doesn't move at all. I'm ordering new front inner tie rods for both sides and will attempt to do the job myself along with new struts at the same time.

Never done tie rods before but I can't imagine it will be difficult. Biggest thing will be finding the tool needed to remove the inner tie rods, hoping autozone has one for rent.
 
Well ****....I got new tie rods and struts and tried to replace them yesterday. Didn't work out so well. I couldn't get the bolts out that connect the bottom of the strut to the control arm, and could not get to the rubber boots over the end of the tie rod/steering rack. Needless to say, nothing got replaced and I am pretty peeved about it.
 
if you got the nut off, you need to hit the bolt with a hammer to get them out.

to get that dust boot off the rack you need the outer tie rod and lock nut off, break the metal band on the boot @ the rack, then slide it off, theres a thin metal tube connecting the two boots together, make sure that tube is back in place when you put the dust boot back on.
 
I did beat those bolts, both with a regular hammer as well as a deadblow. The bolts wouldn't budge. Even tried jacking the control arm upwards a bit too. Also, when I was under the car I physically couldn't get to the metal band where the boot meets the rack.

Both of those reasons are why I gave up.
 


you know how the threaded ends are just a tip there for like a 1/4 inch or so? mine are so mushroomed from beating them out, i used a baby 5 lb sledge hammer on em. i won, they came out with like 5 good shots. my 32 oz roofing hammer was not getting it done, so out came the bfh.

that dust boot you need a pair of dykes aka cutting pliers to nip that crimped factory edge on the metal band.

keep at it.
 
I've used a break bar on the bolt end to make it spin inside the knuckle, that breaks it free somewhat and then you smack it with a hammer.

Or air tools and zing the bolt out.
 
x2 Need a bigger hammer or more wacking. And possible a dremel to sand down the bolts if you mushroomed it.
 
one of mine the nut just fits, i have to thread it over the mushroomed tip lol they were coming out. even if i had to buy new bolts.
 


I think he is referring to the bolts that hold the knuckle to the strut. They can be stubborn if there is corrosion there. Might want to try some heat on the bolts. Get em hot and hit them with pb blaster so it seeps in. Wait a few then break out the BFH.
 
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