.... are bad.... and it failed the safety inspection because of it.

 

I saw it up on the lift... both sides have a considerable amount of "give".

 

Totally explains the shakiness in the front end.

 

Nevertheless.... I haven't dug into it yet.

 

Is there a trick. The rubber boots go well under the engine... not sure how to get to them.

 

Suggestions?

To get to the inner tie rods you have to remove the entire steering rack. This is simple to do but cumbersome. On a 78 model the steering rack must be removed from one side of the car only and there is a fair bit of twisting and turning needed to extract from the engine cross-member once you have undone the rack mounting bolts, the outer tie rods and the steering joint. From memory (I have done this several times!) the rack needs to come out from the left hand side of the car, so I assume that would mean the right hand side for the US.

 

The inner tie rods are held in place on the rack with lock washers which are bent over the tie rods. Be careful when bending these if you do not have replacements (although I have seen some inner tie rods sold on eBay which include these washers). Also be careful with the steering rack mounting rubbers as they are impossible to find. Indeed, I had to have one of these made from urethane as the original was shot and not usable.

 

Hope this helps!

Thanks!!

 

Not exactly what I wanted to hear... kinda was hoping it was an easy fix.... apparently not.

 

The rubber boots are in good shape, but the pivot/ball joints are loose and wobbly.

 

I can get access to them easily if I were to just cut the boot off..... but I can't get the boot off (without destroying it) unless I can get to the "inboard" sides of the boots.... Thats where the problem comes in.