joe5 Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I got a 92 loyale. Just did the ball joint, which has to take the cake for the most difficult ball joint ever. I think the new part was out of spec, as it was just SLIGHTLY too big and did NOT want to go in. By the time we realized the ideal path would be to send it back, we had reached point of no return. After beating on it for ever, it was ~99% seated and we called it good. But now I have some kind of a steering alignment issue. When i'm driving between 45-65mph, the steering wheel vibrates pretty significantly. At one foggy point in my epic battle, I took the castle nut off the tie rod at the knuckle, thinking it could help me. I never separated it from the knuckle though, and ended up just putting the castle nut back on. Could this have messed up my alignment? It has to be an effect of the ball joint or the tie rod since those are the only things I messed with...Any help figurin this out would be much appreciated thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Jack up the wheel and shake it side to side and up/down to make sure something isn't loose. If the car showed up at my shop with that description, that's where I'd start. Something must be loose, so find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykeys Toy Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Worn bearing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe5 Posted August 28, 2014 Author Share Posted August 28, 2014 Thanks guys for the feed back. I picked the car up. The wheel does not budge when pushed up or down. I can get it to move slightly to the left and right, but its slow and takes a good amount of pushing...is that normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jono Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 for one thing - alignment being out does not cause vibrations or steering wheel shimmy - that would be balance. I've also had those ball joints that - would normally be the easist to ever swap out and new in , but for being a bit too big. Complained to ebay seller who claimed the usual , never had any problems or come backs - trying to imply I was an idiot and the only one , so must be me. Standard blame shifter sales technique. Ground the little beasts down using micrometer as a guide using another brand of new BJ. Sorted. No more problems. In fact, they are waiting in the pocket of my Brumby now, reusing as only did 50,000km on them Is it possible you lost a wheel weight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 it is most definitely not the castle nut. wheel balance is probably most likely issue. why was the ball joint replaced - was it vibrating or symptomatic before the repair? wheel bearing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe5 Posted August 28, 2014 Author Share Posted August 28, 2014 @grossgary: The vibration did NOT happen before the repair. Mykestoy also suspected the wheel bearing, but it seems unlikely to me that its condition deteriorated so much while I was doing the ball joint. I replaced the ball joint because it was super worn, like when the car was up the wheel could shake big time left to right and when I got it out the ball joint flopped around like a wet noodle. I did the other side recently too while replaceing a CV axle, and it was toasted so I suspected the other side was probably bad too (which it was). @jono: Thanks for the correction on describing the issue...Is it possible to edit the title of posts so as to not have a misleading title? Regarding wheel weight...I have never tampered with those before, is it something that could have popped off without deliberately attempting to do so? Is it easy to gauge wheel balance? I'll search through previous threads to find some info on that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jono Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 no idea how to change thread title. If you have ever found lead wheel weights on the side of the road as I have - they can come off on their own. coincidental that you have some sort of ply separation develop in the tyre itself. Had that happened when a mate tight wad did not replace his faulty tyre inflator - gave me 45 psi in tyres marked max 36. Stuffed them within a week Swap front to rear, one at a time see if any change ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l75eya Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 Try what jono said. Throw the fronts on the back. See if there's a change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe5 Posted August 29, 2014 Author Share Posted August 29, 2014 Ok cool. I'll do that tonight after work and report back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted August 31, 2014 Share Posted August 31, 2014 I've removed the tie rod ends. Also replaced them. Adjusted alignment. Even with it out of whack enough to ruin tires alignment didn't cause shimmy or vibration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe5 Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 Wow! so I followed your guys advice and moved the rear tires up to the front and vice versa. Problem solved! I did rotate the tires a while back but maybe with other work I did to the car I never got it up to speed to notice and thus thought it was associated with the ball joint/tie rod stuff I was messing with. Seems so obvious now... Time to do some homework on balancing tires I guess ha. I love problems that can be fixed without dishing out cash! Thanks everyone for your input and helping me figure this out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l75eya Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Same thing happened to me fairly recently. Did a ball joint and when i drove the car later on there was like crazy amounts of steering wheel shake. The whole steering wheel would rotate a quarter of a turn. Messed up stuff. Long story short I broke my brain trying to figure it out for like two weeks. Turned out coincidentally the tire developed a bubble. New tire, problem solved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.