Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Derek_Z10
Member
- Joined
- May 21, 2010
- Messages
- 7
- Vehicle Year
- 2004
- Transmission
- Automatic
Back story: Little under 2 Months back I dodged an accident. I had the steering wheel locked to the right and the truck sideways.
Immediately after I noticed when braking the truck would pull left. Also prior to this I could let go of the wheel and the truck would stay on a straight line until a gust of wind. Now It will do maybe 200 yards before drifting to either side with no apparent preference on a flat road.
The truck is a 2004 4x4 Ranger 4L with 74,000miles on it.
The other week I noticed the drivers side front tire had cupping on the inside tread. I had a buddy look at the tread pattern because I've never seen anything like it. It stumped him too but he came to the conclusion that it was probably due to the trucks negative camber. I wasn't aware I had negative camber at the time but sure enough there is, he noticed it about a month back.
I took it to the dealership where they concluded that the left inner tie rod is out of spec and that both the lower ball joints have some play but not enough to warrant replacing. They wanted $260bucks to replace the inner tie rod only. I told them to hold off while I looked around and researched. So all day yesterday I came up and researched a plan (tools needed, parts, process, etc) to replace it all myself.
Today I picked up my truck then jacked it up on stands to see what they were talking about. I tried moving the tires from 12 and 6 clock positions and there was no play from what I could tell, I'm assuming the ball joints are pretty decent yet?
From the 9 and 3 positions there is about 1/4inch of wiggle room measuring from the outside of the tire at the 9 and 3 positions. There's even a clicking sound when it maxes out its play. Now what has me confused is that this is the right (front passenger) tire. This tire does not have the cupping and I would assume that when the dealer meant the "left inner tie rod is out of spec" it would be from the drivers perspective and not someone facing the vehicle.
The side with the cupping and supposed problem, the left side tire (front driver), seems to not have play, there is a viscosity to it instead of just free movement when wiggling and there is no clicking sound. Also by moving the steering wheel back and fourth by an inch this tire has detectable movement while the passenger side doesn't appear to.
tl;dr: The shop told me the left inner tie rod is bad, but it appears to me that it's actually the right inner tie rod. Which one do I replace? And will replacing it and doing an alignment fix the cupping and road stability issues? Also why does the truck pull left when braking? At a speed of 10mph (pulls hardest between 5 and 20mph) it is enough to turn the wheel 90 degrees.
Immediately after I noticed when braking the truck would pull left. Also prior to this I could let go of the wheel and the truck would stay on a straight line until a gust of wind. Now It will do maybe 200 yards before drifting to either side with no apparent preference on a flat road.
The truck is a 2004 4x4 Ranger 4L with 74,000miles on it.
The other week I noticed the drivers side front tire had cupping on the inside tread. I had a buddy look at the tread pattern because I've never seen anything like it. It stumped him too but he came to the conclusion that it was probably due to the trucks negative camber. I wasn't aware I had negative camber at the time but sure enough there is, he noticed it about a month back.
I took it to the dealership where they concluded that the left inner tie rod is out of spec and that both the lower ball joints have some play but not enough to warrant replacing. They wanted $260bucks to replace the inner tie rod only. I told them to hold off while I looked around and researched. So all day yesterday I came up and researched a plan (tools needed, parts, process, etc) to replace it all myself.
Today I picked up my truck then jacked it up on stands to see what they were talking about. I tried moving the tires from 12 and 6 clock positions and there was no play from what I could tell, I'm assuming the ball joints are pretty decent yet?
From the 9 and 3 positions there is about 1/4inch of wiggle room measuring from the outside of the tire at the 9 and 3 positions. There's even a clicking sound when it maxes out its play. Now what has me confused is that this is the right (front passenger) tire. This tire does not have the cupping and I would assume that when the dealer meant the "left inner tie rod is out of spec" it would be from the drivers perspective and not someone facing the vehicle.
The side with the cupping and supposed problem, the left side tire (front driver), seems to not have play, there is a viscosity to it instead of just free movement when wiggling and there is no clicking sound. Also by moving the steering wheel back and fourth by an inch this tire has detectable movement while the passenger side doesn't appear to.
tl;dr: The shop told me the left inner tie rod is bad, but it appears to me that it's actually the right inner tie rod. Which one do I replace? And will replacing it and doing an alignment fix the cupping and road stability issues? Also why does the truck pull left when braking? At a speed of 10mph (pulls hardest between 5 and 20mph) it is enough to turn the wheel 90 degrees.
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