ITRE construction???
 

Is the ITRE spring loaded? Meaning is there a spring in there that keeps the ball pushed out against the socket even if there is a bit of wear? Or does the slightest wear make them floppy?

I have a click coming from the drivers ITRE or steering rack area when driving over cobble that chucks the wheels around. Everything is snug and tight when pushing and pulling on the tire (jacked up) as hard as I can, but if I lay down with my head near the ITRE and give the tire a real hard whack with a knee I can head the clack. Just can't decide which is doing it. Might have to pull the ITRE boot off and see if I can see what is going on.

OTREs are new OEM. LBJs are newer OEM. Steering rack guide is new design and torqued per FSM. Rack bushings are Energy suspension.

Thanks.

I don’t believe they are spring loaded, you can always pop the end of the outer out of the ball joint and see if the inner is flopping around, I have some Napa or rock auto inners that’s are still tight after 20k. Could also be your rack bushings causing the issue

Just a suggestion.

Have you checked the steering column to make sure it isn’t your clacking sound?

I do have a clack in the intermediate shaft u-joints in the firewall. I suspect this is separate though. Might just have to pull the shaft out to isolate things.

No slip joint to tack weld in a 96. Solid shaft.

That’s interesting, I’d have thought the 96-98 would be the same. Guess it depends when they introduced crash safety items.

When I shove my wheels it turns the column a bit. Hard to separate column noise/play from TRE’s and rack.

Well, today I dug into it. At least I got to the bottom of it. ITREs are good, no need to think about those. Steering shaft and intermediate shaft good too. It’s in the rack itself. Had to break out the pieces to know for sure.

Play in the rack is very minimal, not noticeable from the steering wheel but that’s where my clack is at. It’s been that way for years now so I’ll continue to run it for now. Maybe someday I’ll think about replacing it. For now it doesn’t leak or have any issues.

Edit: mid 97 was when the non-collapsing steering shaft part number was changed. I assume that’s when the sliding one was introduced.

I seriously just went through this. I wanted to check play in front end...thought it felt loose. A click on on driver side when I rocked the wheel. Checked everything and thought ...got to be the inner tie rod end. Tried several times. then had my grandson hold steering wheel tight....click still there. Not having the time to wait on dealer and needing right away for a trip to Seward. I picked up some aftermarket inners and outers ( NAPA). was just gonna do what had to be done, take back others. "Rented the tools" from autozone. Scheduled an alignment.
Went to tear into and cant find the noise now...figured...IM not gonna mess with it.. but I did check torque on LBJ's and outtters...all ok..took all the parts back.
Figured....ok if shop calls and says I need the parts. will just have to pay them :(
shop called me back...siad...cars ready to go...thats a really solid old 4runner.

Guess my feeling of loose was maybe road conditions still thawing from permafrost and heaving

Torquing the steering rack guide per FSM means removing the rack and draining all the fluid and doing it on the bench. I cant remember the exact reason from the FSM but doing it on the vehicle isn't going to be quite right. I ended up just going by steering feel with a bunch of test drives when I replaced mine with the new style guide, then thread locked it when it felt right. The ITRE where a pain to replace I had to grind down a wrench thinner to get them off. I think it's easier to replace the whole rack if it's old because they come with ITREs already installed.