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Re: Vague/wandering steering & marginal ball joint >>> Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Tue, 26 Mar 2002 11:05:50
In Reply to: Vague/wandering steering & marginal ball joint >>>, Kyle, Tue, 26 Mar 2002 10:00:10 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Yes, a ball joint can actually fail, in that the two parts of the joint part company. That would be very dangerous, as you would lose control of the car when the wheel folds over. Not pretty.
A small amount of play in a ball joint isn't a problem. All joints have some play in them. If you had 1 mm of movement at the tire, that is infinitesmally little movement at the ball joint itself. Even if you had 1mm at the ball joint, I wouldn't call that a lot. If the ball joint hardware doesn't look totally crap, and the ball joint rubber looks OK, I would say the ball joint isn't the issue.
A major cause of front-end wander on the 9000 is the suspension bushings. The lower A-arm connects to the chassis through two pieces of rubber. The bushing at the front of the arm tends to be pretty stout. It's the rear one I've had trouble with. If you look at the rear of the arm, you'll see that it goes through the center of a rubber donut. The outside of the donut is clampled to the chassis. That donut gets tired and develops play. If you look at the geometry, if you move the rear of the A-arm left and right even a little, it will cause the steering angle of that tire to change. There are substantial forces on the rear bushing during acceleration and deceleration.
Jack up the car, and stick a screwdriver between the A-arm and the chassis. Pull on the screwdriver and see how much the rear of the A-arm moves in the bushing. It should be very stiff. Otherwise, it's time for new rear bushings. If the car has much over 75K, I'd recommend new bushings. Makes a BIG difference in reducing wander.
Good luck!
posted by 140.157....
, Tue, 26 Mar 2002 11:05:50 <-- Viewing This Message
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