My truck is annoying me.

[Mudeprived]

It's never ending. I started with a whole bunch of slop in the steering right after buying it (155k miles) so I did the usual ball joint/tie rod/shock/strut replacement that I do on all vehicles I buy used then had it aligned. It drove great. Then the slop slowly returned and ended up being the steering rack guide worn out so I replaced that and everything was good.....until the slop returned. The rack's bushings gave up. (sigh). So I replaced the rack bushings and had it aligned again. It drove unbelievably smooth the past 3 days since the fix but today the steering wheel started jerking back and forth on small bumps. I took it up this construction road (dirt and rock) and the steering wheel was shaking back and forth. I could feel metal to metal rattling in there.

Now what........:suspicious:

 

[ThorInc]

Did you have a look underneath? Did you do the repairs yourself? If it was worked on recently, maybe something came loose.

 

[nc-grayson]

Did you replace the inner or outer tie rods?

 

[97t4r81]

I'm in similar situation, I think mine is the lca bushings(I'm getting whitline) and a bad rack. So let us know when you solve.

 

[Mudeprived]

All the work was done by me by the book using Toyota parts.

Upper BJs
Lower BJs
Inner TRs
Outer TRs
Shocks
Struts
F/R Sway bushings
Rack guide
Rack bushings


I just came back in from checking it out. I can wiggle the driver's side tire at 3 and 9 and feel a clunk. It's not the Tie rod and appears to be coming from inside the rack. Nothing on the passenger side (strange?) I tightened the rack guide another two revolutions and we'll see how that is tomorrow.

It might just be my rack going out but I would think I'd feel the clunk on both sides since the tie rods are connected to a single rod in the rack?

 

[Jpete16]

You can feel metal rattling around? In the steering? I'd double check everything was reinstalled correctly. Look for "wet" rubber on the inner tie rod bellows, this can indicate a leaking rack, you can also put a pinhole puncture in the bottom of the bellows and see if fluid comes out. If its leaking and has lost fluid it may be the metal you are feeling. Other common problems leading to unsatisfactory steering are upper and lower control arm bushings. I just replaced my rack bushing and lower control arm bushings with energy suspension this past week.

 

[Mudeprived]

You can feel metal rattling around? In the steering? I'd double check everything was reinstalled correctly. Look for "wet" rubber on the inner tie rod bellows, this can indicate a leaking rack, you can also put a pinhole puncture in the bottom of the bellows and see if fluid comes out. If its leaking and has lost fluid it may be the metal you are feeling. Other common problems leading to unsatisfactory steering are upper and lower control arm bushings. I just replaced my rack bushing and lower control arm bushings with energy suspension this past week.

It's just a solid clunk back and forth as I wiggle the tire in and out but a rattle when driving on rocky terrain.

I did see fluid in the boot (3 or 4 drips) when I did the tie rods and some where the rack piston goes in.

Fluid level is fine though.

I was peeking at my lower CA bushings from underneath when I did the rack bushings and I could tell they were a little bit cracked from age but not torn.

How long did it take you to do the lower bushings?

 

[Yoter]

Have you seen this before?:

Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle - TTORA Forum

 

[Mudeprived]

Have you seen this before?:

Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle - TTORA Forum

Yeah I read about that before and re-read it again then went outside to test it. All I could feel was a very faint clink. I could not feel anything in the steering wheel. My hand was full of black grease afterwards. LOL

Another thing is I have no play or wandering when driving. It drives straight with no issues. If I drive slow through a parking lot and hit cracks or dips then it jerks the steering wheel just a bit.

 

[mtbtim]

Looks like there's a chance you might need one or both of these videos [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] and I made:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wZoRP5ogrK0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kmaZNBp1gZM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Mudeprived]

Looks like there's a chance you might need one or both of these videos [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] and I made:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wZoRP5ogrK0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kmaZNBp1gZM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thanks. I watched both of those vids last week. Great videos but one issue: no captioning.

I'm hard of hearing and cannot understand anything without captioning or subtitles. I get the idea of what's going on though.

 

[mtbtim]

Thanks. I watched both of those vids last week. Great videos but one issue: no captioning.

I'm hard of hearing and cannot understand anything without captioning or subtitles. I get the idea of what's going on though.

Somebody recently asked us to add captioning to our videos. Was that person related to you? I wish we could do this but I looked into it and it's more labor intensive than I care to get into. We're already struggling to keep up with the editing. I usually let Sean do all the editing but I'm now helping since we've been wrenching so much and are backed up. I now have a new respect for the editing Sean does because it's tedious and very time consuming.

 

[Jpete16]

If you replace the LCA bushings with factory rubber bushing it will take much less time than the energy poly bushings. I did standard bushings on my old 4runner and it took a few hours of really messing with it before I found the "best" method. After I figured out the technique the other side took only about 15 minutes. The poly bushings have to be heated and cleaned out as they re-use the metal sleeve of the previous bushing. This will take about an hour to an hour and a half per side. Luckily I could do it at work because you'll need a ball joint press either way. Let me know if you need detailed info on how to get them out. I found some youtube videos that gave me an idea too.

 

[mtbtim]

If you replace the LCA bushings with factory rubber bushing it will take much less time than the energy poly bushings. I did standard bushings on my old 4runner and it took a few hours of really messing with it before I found the "best" method. After I figured out the technique the other side took only about 15 minutes. The poly bushings have to be heated and cleaned out as they re-use the metal sleeve of the previous bushing. This will take about an hour to an hour and a half per side. Luckily I could do it at work because you'll need a ball joint press either way. Let me know if you need detailed info on how to get them out. I found some youtube videos that gave me an idea too.

The Whitelines don't require all that extra work. They are the same as OEM except the bushings are made out of polyurethane. You must be talking about using the Energy Suspension bushings which I wouldn't suggest people go with because of all the extra dicking around you have to do.

 

[meRockboost]

Out of everything I've done to my 4runner I should have put the split pin in the steering shaft as my first "mod". I chased that slop for a while.

 

[Kanoe]

There might be another possibility that doesn't seem to get mentioned much but was worn on mine. Although I suspect 96 and early 97s are the ones affected by this as the part number changed at that point. This doesn't seem to be a common problem.

There are 2 back to back U-joints with a centering plate in the steering shaft at the firewall. It is covered by plastic covers on both the inside and out. Mine had play in it which could be felt on rough roads. You get under the truck and hold the steering shaft tightly where it mates to the rack, then get someone inside the truck to rock the wheel. If there is any play in the system you will notice it. Then you have to determine if the part I mentioned is the problem or the tack weld/roll pin joint mentioned previously.

I found a junkyard replacement for mine which was 90% better. I have my old one under my desk still and have made a couple of attempts to find replacement parts but so far have had no luck.

 

[Jpete16]

Agreed my advice to anyone deciding to replace with energy suspension bushings is only do it if you have an EXTREME need or off road set up. The standard bushings are easier and work just fine. I'd recommend going with the easier option.

 

[Mudeprived]

So I drove to work today and realized that I overtightened the rack guide when the steering was stiff and would not return to center. That made an interesting drive to work. I did feel that the truck wasn't wobbling anymore so that points to the steering rack as possibly too far gone. I also noticed on the way home that my steering wheel would slightly pull to the left when braking slowly. It's been doing this every now and then and it's not my brakes because I replaced everything related to the brakes and it's been doing this before that. I'm guessing that's a sign of the control arm bushings.

So it looks like this might be a combination of a bad rack and arm bushings. You guys agree?

 

[techno]

I've had to replace my steering rack and lca bushings, so it's not an unreasonable thing to go bad in my experience. The rack replacement was straight forward with one major exception. I could not for the life of me undo the high pressure line fitting from the rack. It was rusted solid. I had to cut the pipe and replace the whole line. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen to you if you do the replacement.