Eturbo924

Ok while I was under my car the other day chasing down grounds and cleaning here and there I decided to check my front end for play. Grabbed the wheel at 12 and 6... tried to rock it and ... nice and solid.

Then grabbed it at 9 and 3 and shocked as I was... I moved (rotated tire/wheel) it a good inch forward and backward from center! I was shocked at how much movement there was!

I checked to see where it was coming from and seemed to be the inner tie rod area. I checked both sides with the same result. (one side on the ground one side in the air) This is a 1987 928S4 for all those not close with my cars issues.

So question. Is there some special things I should know about this beasts steering? (pitman arms and or idler arms that could account for this play) Or am I looking at needing new tie rods or some thing else. The thing that sucks is that this cars steering was replaced by the previous owner. It all even looks brand new. Obviously they did some thing wrong. Plus the alignment is definately off. (camber on the drivers side very bad)

Mrmerlin

its time to upgrade the inner and outer tie rods, as well as get a new set of rack boots.
You will need a 22mm , and 32 mm open end wrench to hold/counter hold the rack.
When you get the new parts seperate the outer from the rod and slip on the boot.
Measure the old and new so they are the same length. once the inner portion is screwed on then turn the rack so that it is tight against the housing, then spray some WD 40 on the rack boot and slide it onto its seat, then do the outer portion, repeat for the other side.

Note: the rack stops are movable so when your trying to fit the 32mm wrench and it seems like it too thick simply tap the stop inwards a bit , then the 32mm wrench will fit on the inner tie rod

Leon Speed

An inch sounds like a lot. You might want to check the condition of the steering rack bushings, that might account for that much play. Replace with solid bushings offered by a few vendors.

Eturbo924

Bushings internal to steering rack or external mount kind of thing?

Mrmerlin

the bushings are mounted on the outside of the rack and they add stiffness to the left to right movement when the steering wheel is turned.
Roger sells them and he has Aluminum or Delrin

Stromius

If you do these, you'll need an air chisel to remove the old ones. Prying with handtools is fruitless so just a heads up. Once they are out, it's pretty easy except manuvering a box wrench to counterhold the bolts from above.

joejoe

Just did (half ) on a friends car 1 week ago. I advised to order both, however he bought the one with torn boot only (and 2 rack bushings) replaced and lo and behold the other side became very evident of needing replacing also.

Mrmerlin

BTW there are 4 bushings for the rack

Bill Ball

I assume you are aware, but just a reminder that the 3-9 test is hard to do alone. Just having the steering wheel locked will not prevent some movement there. Somebody needs to hold it hard against the lock to make sure there is no movement. Even so, there can be play in the steering column and its u-joints, so you have to do a lot of checking of this and that to locate the real source. Anyway, there should be no play at all at the inner tie rod or the balljoints. That means zero. They should be snug and somewhat stiff (not floppy). If you really have an inch of play at the wheel, I would expect the tie rods to go "click-click" if they were responsible. You can grab the tie rod joint and pull hard on it, up-down and in-out, to see if there is any play there. It might even be better to separate the balljoint from the steering knuckle to get a better evaluation of the inner joint if you aren't sure.

Eturbo924

I will perform the test again and see if it repeats.

Thanks for all the input!

Eturbo924

Just to close this one out.

Paul helped me inspect the tie rod ends... properly.

Yup... passenger side was shot.

So got a new set for both sides. They are going in tomorrow.

This car is going to be completely rebuilt the way I am going :-)

At least... knock on wood... it tends to hit me with only a couple items at a time.

Next on to the transmission... and high idle. Figure they are inter related.

Bill Ball

Excellent.

Look for vacuum leaks. What's the tranny doing? Hard partial throttle shifts could be broken vacuum to the modulator or the modulator itself.

Chuck Schreiber

Was just going through this on the GTS the other day. Lots of play at 9 and 3 with one side jacked up.
(I would say almost an inch of movement)
Talked to Jim M tonight and he said this would probably acct for my tramlining and slop in the steering.
Will put on the lift and do a thorough inspection next time we're at Brad's.

Eturbo924

Just closing this one out. New tie rods in and car is 1000 times better. No more steering shake... well now only when at speed due to warped rim. Thanks again to Paul/Zeus for his help on the rods. Nice to have some one with a lift and great knowledge of these cars!

Transmission service is coming soon. Issues it is having. It hardly ever double downs when it should. It also kind of drags in gear... only way I can think to describe it. So if you are cruising along and kind of just holding speed on a slight down hill. The car will kick in and out of gear. Like a torque converter is coming on and off. Kind of makes for a hurky jurky ride unless you get more into the throttle or put it in neutral. (It does have a kickdown bypass switch)

TheClairvoyant

Damn! Wish i read this post a couple days ago. I thought I didn't have a wrench thin enough to get the inner tie rod, so I ground down a 32 mm wrench to do the job.

Oh well, at least it was an excuse to buy a bench grinder.