Like the topic says, after i installed my extended wheel stud my steering wheel has a little bit of play. When im stopped i can move the steering wheel 1 inch to the right or left without any strenght, and when i WOT it kinda shifts either left or right a little since the steering wheel feels kinda loose. This is after i installed my extended wheel studs. I tooked off the brake caliper, the rotor, and the castle nuts on the lower control arm and the upper control arm. I did not mess with the tie rod. Do anyone know what would have caused this? It feels kinda scary when im on WOT because it kinda shift left and right due to the loose steering wheel feeling.

 

I can't imagine that the choice of studs has anything remotely related to steering unless in your reassembly you left something loose. Check your wheel bearings, wheel tightness, etc. to be sure things are correct but properly installed studs themselves aren't the culprit. I wonder if the issue was not there before and you are only now noticing it as your thoughts are focussed onthe front suspension.

I have done long studs on two racecars and plan them on the next due to wheel and spacer issues and have had no negative effect other than taking longer to get the nuts on and off.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">unless in your reassembly you left something loose. Check your wheel bearings, wheel tightness, etc. to be sure things are correct but properly installed studs themselves aren't the culprit. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm guessing this is the culprit, unless it's just something you didn't notice before. What procedure did you use to change the studs?

 

i know its something with the assembly... i checked everything and i did it right. i was thinking if anyone know a definite answer like it should be the ball joint or etc. it wasnt there before, im positive

 

how did you install the new studs? Press the hub out and press it back in?

 

this may be dumb, but hell its possible.... did you use open end lugs afterwards? if not, your lugs may not be tightened down on the wheel.

 

Perhaps you did more than just install long studs. Why did you pull off upper and lower control arms? Perhaps when doing whatever you did you changed the alignment. I would guess, at the least you put wider tires with a different offset on them. By doing so you changed scrub and possibly some other alignment issues. Caster changes can make big differences in force needed to turn the wheel. Toe out can make the car pull under WOT. Are we getting the whole story? Or did you change a lot of things?

 

no i tooked off the ball joint for the upper and lower control arm to press in the extended studs.

 

do you have a new wheel/lugnut combo? if so, check the torque on the nuts.

 

Things that I can think of off hand that would cause slop in the steering would be loose or worn rack & pinion components including the brackets, tie rods, etc. If this were the case you would probably also notice some wander & weave while tracking straight down a road... check these first... it could just be a coincidence that the symptom occurred during this project with the lugs.

what model are you working on because I know to replace the lugs properly on most you have to disassemble the hub from the knuckle to gain access for removing and installing lugs. If you did it this way did you reuse the old wheel bearings or press in a new ones? I've seen bad results from reusing bearings. I would suspect more symptoms though if there were a bearing issue such as noise.

I don't see how your caster would have been changed by removing the steering knuckle since this is not adjustable(w/ stock components anyhow). Your camber would only change if you have a camber kit and loosened something on the uca other than the ball joint. And your toe should not have changed either unless you loosened more than just the ball joint of the tie rod. I would suspect that an alignment will not solve your problem.

Get you front end up and look for play in the wheels when rocked up & down and Back & forth.
:edit: I just re-read and saw that you did not undo the tie rod from the knuckle. The strain placed on the tie rods by basically hanging the knuckles from them could have damaged something there unintentionally. This strengthens my thought process that something has failed with your rack or tie rods.