Well I put new poliuithane bushings all around, new struts, new shocks, new ball joints, new wheel bearings, added the wonder bar, put a bigger sway bars on from an Iroc. After all of this my stearing was nice and tight and very responsive yahoo right? Then I have 4 new tires mounted, balanced and aligligned and now the stearing has play in it. The car drives straight like it was alightned right but the stearing now has extra play??? What thould I check, maybe the streaing box is worn?? Any ideas??

 

It could be a lot. Look for a post by me on march 27th.

 

Have you changed the inner and outer tie rods ?
Pitman arm ?

 

No to both rods and the arm, that could be it though huh? Is that a job I can do at home?? And then go for a realighnment?

 

It's probably not the pitman arm. It's most likely the center link and or tie rod ends. Put the car on stands, grasp the tire at 3&9 o'clock, ans shake it like youre turning the wheel from steering left to right. Watch the linkage for movement at the tie rod ends and where the pitman and idler arms mount. If there is movement at the idler and pit arms, the center link is bad. If at the tie rod ends, they are bad.

 

It seems more likely that you would have detected loose pieces of suspension while you were replacing all those other things. Same thing happened to me, got all new suspension parts, torqued down, then a couple of days later, noticed that the front was still real loose. Turns out the rag joint was almost broken. Down to Les Schwab tire store, and got a new one installed for about $40. Turns on a dime and leaves a nickel change now!

The rag joint, in case you don't know is the layered, looks like leather part between the lower and the upper parts of the steering shaft, about a foot up from the steering box, if I recall.

They seem to last forever, but makes a BIG difference if it starts breaking down.

Hope this helps!
Poncho

 

I thought I heard on this board that you couldn't get a new ragjoint anymore, without buying a whole steering shaft. Is that the only way to replace it? Will a ragjoint from a newer car work? I've got 230,000 miles on my car's clock, and I'm sure it (and I) would love a new ragjoint!

 

The place I went had several of them on the shelf, my guess is that the same part number served more than 1 vehicle (ours!)

I haven't seen any post saying the ragjoints weren't availble, where did you see that?

I went to Les Schwab (tire store, also did front-end work) and they had no prob. with the install. The tech said it was pretty typical.

Like I said though in my first post, about $40, a couple hours of time and I drove out of there with a new (feeling) car!

hth,
P.

 

HUh I had never heard of that I will have that checked.

 

I had that same feeling on a car years ago when I had new tires installed, things felt a little loose for a while, especially if they have deep tread. If your front end checks out ok, you may just have to put some miles on those new tires and scuff 'em up a bit. What tire and size did you get ?

 

Good Year Eagles 245/50-16.