Name that messed-up front end component!

Here's the story...

I knew I had a loose tie rod end, and I've had the part in hand for weeks, but I haven't had any time to mess with it. Didn't look like it was about to come apart or anything, but it needed to be dealt with. Two weeks ago a dude in an Evo and I are messing with each other so I'm driving it a little harder than normal, but nothing crazy. The shenanigans ended and I made a harder than average turn into my neighborhood... And the steering went apesh!t. I figure I've probably broken that tie rod off and thank God it didn't happen a couple of minutes earlier. Limp it into my garage.

Last weekend I finally get a chance to mess with it. I jack it up, take the wheel off and somewhat to my surprise the tie rod is no worse than before. No matter, it needs to be replaced and I've set aside this time to do it, so I replace it. I take care to make sure the overall tie rod length is the same as it was before, but I know I'll probably have to adjust it and maybe even take it to an alignment shop. Just a fact of life with this sort of thing... But I'm pretty sure it's at least close to right.

I take it for a ride... No, not even close. It's bad, really bad. So bad I should've seen it. I knew I might be off a little but this feels way, way off. So I park it again and sure enough, the toe is horrific. I can usually eyeball those adjustments pretty well, so that's what I did. I didn't measure this time but I knew it should be close.

Take it for another ride... Yes, feels fine, drive a bit more... No, on second thought, this is awful. Back to the garage. Now how did I miss that? The toe is very visibly off. So I straighten it. Same story. Ride around for a while and it's good, then it's not. Finally I measured it. I measured the distance between the two front tires at a specfic height at the front and the back of the tire. Eyeballing it I was already within 1/16" but this time I got it dead straight for a fact. Same thing.

I worked at it some more and I'll leave out the details but basically here's what I found out. If I get it straight and then drive very carefully, it will stay straight. If I make a turn at any kind of speed, enough to make the car lean, it goes nuts and it stays that way. Tires howling, steering wheel jerking around pulling the car in any direction but straight, it's a handful. Jack the car up and nothing's noticeably loose or off, put it back down and magically it's straight again. So that's a clue. Suspension load has an effect. Another clue... Once it gets messed up, if I then drive straight in reverse for a little while it corrects itself again, same as jacking it up.

So clearly something's screwed up good. A bushing, something... But nothing is so screwed up I can see it right away or move it by hand. All of my front end is pretty new. Some of it might be up to 4-5 years old but most of it's under 3. It is lowered a couple of inches but it has been for quite a while. And it's Shelby dropped, but it's been that way for several months, so this isn't the result of a recent change I don't believe.

Where should I be looking? Lower control arms? Strut rods?

Thanks!

 

Threads stripped in the tie rod adjuster sleeve? Saw that once, probably from not having it sufficiently tight.

 

Nope, checked that. Good guess though...

 

Strut rod, upper control arm bushings, steering box

 

Make sure the spring towers aren't cracked where it was drilled for the Shelby drop...More than likely it's not but doesn't hurt to check....Also, maybe the strut broke inside the bushings?

 

What should I be checking on the steering box? Pitman arm seems good and tight, same with the rag joint, and the gear adjustment. Is there anything else?

Upper control arms I have not checked at all. The bushings were good when I last had them off, when I did the Shelby drop during the engine swap a few months ago. Will check those.

Strut rod bushings are new, and the strut rods don't move by hand, but maybe they merit a closer look...

When you say strut, do you mean the strut rods or something else?

As for the towers... I really hope you're wrong, but now I have to check that too.

 

Strut rods or control arm bushings I'd be looking at.

 

Check the lower control arm cam bolts.

 

what about the wheel bearings?

 

I had the guts inside the hub come un-glued. It came apart where I didn't know it could come apart.

 

I cracked both shock towers near the UCA mounts. It would have to be very badly cracked to throw alignment out that bad. What about the UCA nuts?

 

Yup Yup Yup, that is my guess also. Cam is loose and keeps moving the camber and in turn the toe.

 

Well I haven't had time to get too deep into it yet, but I can confirm it's not the wheel bearings or the strut rods.

Nothing moves (by hand anyway) with the suspension unloaded, jacked up... Upper or lower control arms, tie rods, etc. I feel like given the symptoms it's got to be a control arm thing, either the cam bolts or something on the uppers. I see no signs as yet of cracked towers. At least nowhere I can see. I'll try and get time to mess with it some more in the next couple of days. Thanks for all the help so far...

 

Simple check...Swap a different set of tires or switch the one's you have from side to side....Maybe the steel belts in a tire broke or is defective

 

ball joints tie rod ends idler arm everything else under there should be no play when the load is off the front end, up and down or sideways, plus check the rag joint