anyone else have some wicked play in their steering rack??

[cordrayj1]

SO bad that they wont even give me an alignment. its not the inners, he kept telling me it was, so while the vehicle was on the lift, i told him "lets both take a look". we did, and just as i told him, no play in the inners. the acutal steering shaft (drivers) that the inners thread on to moves up and down a little inside the rack. this is pretty bothersome.


what i wanted to see is if anyone has ever heard of a complete steering rack failure on one of these . . .AND if anyone knew where i could find out whats going on inside to see the true dangers of what may take place. I want to wheel.

 

[Volley]

Have you tried replacing the rack guide? Rack play has been covered a lot here, several things to try. Best thing to do is search

 

[cordrayj1]

-Yes, i have replaced them recently (past year).
-Yes, they helped.
-The actual steering rod that comes out of the rack is whats moving. not the rack itself.

AND YES, Ive tried to search. that is a pretty useless feature in my opinion unless you have magical searching powers. i usually post imnportant things like anything other than cosmetic "mods" and cool stuff like, "can you please post pics of 33allterrains". seriously. that should be off-topic. because it is totally OFF TOPIC

 

[Drcoffee]

Try this:

Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle

 

[cordrayj1]

Try this:

Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle

man how much does all that crap cost?

 

[kruegs]

man how much does all that crap cost?

Not sure what you mean? The only cost associated with this (if it is part of your problem) would be either the tack weld(s) or the pin used to keep the two shafts together? I actually did this on mine recently and used a bunch of tape... so all it really cost me was time.

 

[cordrayj1]

Not sure what you mean? The only cost associated with this (if it is part of your problem) would be either the tack weld(s) or the pin used to keep the two shafts together? I actually did this on mine recently and used a bunch of tape... so all it really cost me was time.

used tape? come again? tack welds? explain por favor senor

 

[kruegs]

Try this:

Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle

Ah, read through this link and you will see what I mean with the tack welds, tape etc. ;-)

 

[cordrayj1]

yeah ive read that. not a current issue.

 

[gannonrt]

SO bad that they wont even give me an alignment. its not the inners, he kept telling me it was, so while the vehicle was on the lift, i told him "lets both take a look". we did, and just as i told him, no play in the inners. the acutal steering shaft (drivers) that the inners thread on to moves up and down a little inside the rack. this is pretty bothersome.


what i wanted to see is if anyone has ever heard of a complete steering rack failure on one of these . . .AND if anyone knew where i could find out whats going on inside to see the true dangers of what may take place. I want to wheel.

I had the same thing said to me when I took my 4runner into NTB for an alignment after putting on my lift. The SAE Master Tech came out and told me that the lift was causing my looseness in my steering rack and my CVs to puke grease. He said that the steering adjustment cams didn't have enough play after the lift to adjust at all, that 4runners really shouldn't have suspensions lifts and that I should have done a body lift. I was completely frazzled after the discussion since I had just spent a whole bunch of money and went to visit my Toyota expert friend that put on the lift for me. (I call him that because he worked at an offroad fab shop for 4 years specializing in toyotas, owns a sick Tacoma and 4runner and works on his brothers and father's 3rd gen 4runners) He said that the front end of every one of them have the same play in the steering shaft as it goes into the steering rack and proceeded to show me the exact same play on his Tacoma that I had on my 4runner and that my wife has on her bone stock 97 4runner. I'll see if I can get some video of this up later today.

 

[Dous]

yeah ive read that. not a current issue.

That link is probably the solution to your issue.

I had some play in my steering too, but everything was brand new, rack, tie rods, ball joints. But I still had tons of play. One little tack weld and I was good to go.

 

[kruegs]

That link is probably the solution to your issue.

I had some play in my steering too, but everything was brand new, rack, tie rods, ball joints. But I still had tons of play. One little tack weld and I was good to go.

The best part about that link and description of the problem is that it takes seconds to check by reaching down to where the steering shaft goes through the firewall and hold it while moving the wheel back and forth.

My experience was exactly the same... play in the steering despite all new components which stumped everyone. This was my "silver bullet".

To the OP, if you haven't already I'd definitely suggest the test to see if this may in fact be part or all of your issue. Good luck man.

 

[madginger]

Not sure what you mean? The only cost associated with this (if it is part of your problem) would be either the tack weld(s) or the pin used to keep the two shafts together? I actually did this on mine recently and used a bunch of tape... so all it really cost me was time.

Did you wrap a ton of tape around both shafts or try to shove in between? Wonder if JB Weld would be an easier fix.

 

[masphx]

Did you wrap a ton of tape around both shafts or try to shove in between? Wonder if JB Weld would be an easier fix.

I drilled a hole though both parts and put a small roll pin though them.

 

[audiness]

mine has thee exact same problem, I plan to do that " Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle" fix someday, it juts looks like a hell of a lot of work.

 

[Stick Figure]

Have you tried replacing the rack guide? Rack play has been covered a lot here, several things to try. Best thing to do is search

I don't think the TTORA link posted has a thing to do with the OP problem and that Volley was right on the money, but maybe didn't explain the solution very well.

( borrowed from 1999 TOYOTA 4RUNNER Parts - LithiaToyotaParts.com )

Look at numbers 15, 16, 17, 18

15 is a bushing that keeps the play out of the rack internally on the drivers side. 16 is a spring that keeps tension on the bushing. 17 and 18 are the cap and jam nut. loosen that big jam nut and snug the cap down a bit to take up the slop from the worn bushing or worn out spring and your play will go away. You will still want to order a new bushing and spring, but tightening them up will get you by until you can get the new ones in.

 

[iowajosh]

SO bad that they wont even give me an alignment. its not the inners, he kept telling me it was, so while the vehicle was on the lift, i told him "lets both take a look". we did, and just as i told him, no play in the inners. the acutal steering shaft (drivers) that the inners thread on to moves up and down a little inside the rack. this is pretty bothersome.


what i wanted to see is if anyone has ever heard of a complete steering rack failure on one of these . . .AND if anyone knew where i could find out whats going on inside to see the true dangers of what may take place. I want to wheel.

What guide did you use? Maybe it needs to be snugged up? It is not unheard of for people to put a new steering rack in but a lot of the time it sounds like they are trying to fix some kind of play and they don't always report that they had success.

 

[cmj]

On my taco I had this issue. I replaced the roller style rack guide with the newer glide bearing. I also put two tack welds on the steering shaft slip joint. Both made a tremendous improvement in the steering. The guide cost me somewhere around $80 and took about 10 minutes. The slip joint didn't cost me anything and took about 30 minutes. Try these two fixes before throwing big money at it.