the other day my passenger side lower ball joint came off while i was taking a left turn and my axle broke and i had to fix this in the middle of the street. this all could have been avoided had i put the dam COTTER pin in the nut .

anyways after i fixed it i got the axle back in and tighten both lower ball joints back upa dn drove home. ever since then my steer has been really sloppy especially taking right turns but overall the steering is just really loose i can tell a big diffeence. its either that or im really paranoid that it will happen again.

are there some things you guys can tell me to change or fix to get my steering back to normal please? i want my tight steering back.

P.S its a manual rack if that helps

 

bump for night people

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AzCivicCpe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">might be the tie rod ends.</TD></TR></TABLE>

that's what i suspect my problem is too. that or upper ball joints. my alignment is near perfect but my steering still pulls and wobbles like my alignment is off.

 

i vote for ball joints

 

so basically i should go ahead and replace the tie rods, the lower ball joint and the upper ball joint? when i tried to put the but back on the lower ball joint it kept spinning. i had to take it to a shop and have them use a air gun and even then with a air gun it still spinned for a long time i got scared it wouldnt go back on then finalyl it caught and tighten up. also the ball joint boots are ripped

 

my steering feels loose as well. the difference being i have p.s. rack. i took the belt off a while ago. then i swapped my motor and deleted all power steering stuff. anyway i autox about a month ago and i REALLY felt the looseness(funny noise and feel in the syeering wheel) ball joints ,tie rods what? how do i check if something is loose or needs replaced?

 

check if the ball joint is ripped..
also have someone turn the steering wheel and see if its got sloppy movement/freeplay on the tie rods..

 

well heres another thing i noticed. rather thansloppy steering. my steering feels a lot like power steering. is that normal?

 

I had the same problem and it turns out that it was the control arm bushings. I got them replaced and it made a world of difference. The steering tightened up immediately. Hope this helps...

 

which bushings are those? i know there is the upper ball joint bushing, the lower ball joint bushing and the tie rod and tie rod bushing. which one are u speaking of?

 

Rather than replacing random parts, go to a GOOD alignment shop, that only does alignments. Explain the problem, they will be able to tell you what is out of whack about 99% of the time, if nothing needs replacement all it will cost you is an alignment. If parts are to be replaced they will not align the car and therfore not charge you.