the problem i had still exists. To explain from the top, a few weeks ago my car caught a "shudder" somewhere in the frontend. To explain the "shudder" more it is like a grinding, rubbing, vibrating that you can hear and feel. It would happen at all speeds, accelerating, decelerating, under braking, but the only time it would stop was when i would turn left. It didn't have to be sharp, pretty much any turn of the steering wheel to the left. So i did the jack the car up and try to move the wheel test. 12 and 6, movement, 3 and 9, movement. By the way this only happens on the drivers side front wheel. So with some research i decided to change out the wheel bearings. I replaced the drivers side, however, like i said, the issue still exists. I havent lowered the car back down off the stands yet, but i can move the wheel hub and when i do i can see movement out of the axle and the tie rod. Now i'm thinking possibly tie rod, but before i get to workin, i want to see if anyone can give me any input? As far as the tie rod procedure, i'm aware of the write-up and i'm gonna do some more searchin on the forum.

thanks for any input,
matt

check all components of the front end drivers side, tie rods, ball joints, and cv joint. I am betting on it being the cv possibly.

As I said in my original post, I never put my wheels back on, I just noticed some play when moving the hub around. Well, last night I put both front wheels back on. The passengers side wheel doesn't move at all. The drivers side has some play 3-9. From looking at all the joints, I can see play on the tie rod to knuckle connection. It looks like the knuckle hole is too large because the tie rod ball joint is moving around and that is where my play is coming from. Changing out the wheel hub did the trick as far as the humming/shudder is concerned. Is this a sign of the tie rods needing a change? Thanks for the space.

Originally posted by Fletch
As I said in my original post, I never put my wheels back on, I just noticed some play when moving the hub around. Well, last night I put both front wheels back on. The passengers side wheel doesn't move at all. The drivers side has some play 3-9. From looking at all the joints, I can see play on the tie rod to knuckle connection. It looks like the knuckle hole is too large because the tie rod ball joint is moving around and that is where my play is coming from. Changing out the wheel hub did the trick as far as the humming/shudder is concerned. Is this a sign of the tie rods needing a change? Thanks for the space.

Yep. That would be the tie rod.I would suggest tightening the tie rod down and seeing if that eliminates the problem, but chances are it will need to be replaced. Replacing the tie rods on a vehicle is fairly straight forward. Your biggest problem is getting it adjusted properly so you can drive it to an alignment shop.

Originally posted by freelancefool

Originally posted by Fletch As I said in my original post, I never put my wheels back on, I just noticed some play when moving the hub around. Well, last night I put both front wheels back on. The passengers side wheel doesn't move at all. The drivers side has some play 3-9. From looking at all the joints, I can see play on the tie rod to knuckle connection. It looks like the knuckle hole is too large because the tie rod ball joint is moving around and that is where my play is coming from. Changing out the wheel hub did the trick as far as the humming/shudder is concerned. Is this a sign of the tie rods needing a change? Thanks for the space.

Yep. That would be the tie rod.I would suggest tightening the tie rod down and seeing if that eliminates the problem, but chances are it will need to be replaced. Replacing the tie rods on a vehicle is fairly straight forward. Your biggest problem is getting it adjusted properly so you can drive it to an alignment shop.

It's not that hard to get it close to correct so you can drive it to the alignment shop. After you free the joint from the knuckle and crack the jam nut free, you just count the turns it takes to remove the tie rod end completely. Then when you install your new tie rod end just turn it on the same number of turns, and lock the jam nut back down. It should be close enough to drive with no major pulling. Then you can take it in for an alignment.

Originally posted by shazow1969

Originally posted by freelancefool

Originally posted by Fletch As I said in my original post, I never put my wheels back on, I just noticed some play when moving the hub around. Well, last night I put both front wheels back on. The passengers side wheel doesn't move at all. The drivers side has some play 3-9. From looking at all the joints, I can see play on the tie rod to knuckle connection. It looks like the knuckle hole is too large because the tie rod ball joint is moving around and that is where my play is coming from. Changing out the wheel hub did the trick as far as the humming/shudder is concerned. Is this a sign of the tie rods needing a change? Thanks for the space.

Yep. That would be the tie rod.I would suggest tightening the tie rod down and seeing if that eliminates the problem, but chances are it will need to be replaced. Replacing the tie rods on a vehicle is fairly straight forward. Your biggest problem is getting it adjusted properly so you can drive it to an alignment shop.

It's not that hard to get it close to correct so you can drive it to the alignment shop. After you free the joint from the knuckle and crack the jam nut free, you just count the turns it takes to remove the tie rod end completely. Then when you install your new tie rod end just turn it on the same number of turns, and lock the jam nut back down. It should be close enough to drive with no major pulling. Then you can take it in for an alignment.

Yup. I did that on a Dodge Durango a while back. In addition, I put some white out on the tie rod end (after I backed the jam nut off) to give me extra assurance of putting it back in the same general place.


Brian

Also when replacing the outer tie rod, check for tension on the inner. You should be able to move it so that it points up and does not fall back down. That is a fair indication of proper tension or wear on the part. I believe that the actual spec for pull away is 3-7 ft lbs... Don't have my service manual right now so I could be mistaken but I do know the first part of what I said is right for any vehicle...
Good luck