Message text written by John Cowan
>1. Is the stem of the tie rod supposed to rotate within the socket?
2. Does the loose and rotating stem indicate that the tie rod end is
trashed? (I think it does).
3. Things seem tight, now, but should I assume the tie rod end is unsafe to
drive with?
4. Could the nyloc nut have worked itself out? I was standing by when the
tie rods were initially installed this time last year and had the mechanic
check each of the ends. We both agreed they were tight. The only other
time anyone was near the tie rod ends was shortly thereafter when I had the
front end aligned. I suppose the tech could have unscrewed the nut, but I
don't know why he would have. I had also asked him to check if everything
was secure and he said it was, although I was not able to watch. I've put
about 1000 miles on the car since then.
5. Does this sound like I got a bad tie rod end from TRF?
Further note: Some time ago I posted a question about dealing with an
annoying shimmy just above 50 MPH. I never fully solved the problem, but
it had diminished to the point where I could ignore it - until we tightened
up the tie rod end last week. Now it's worse than ever. Interestingly,
the shimmy began just after I had the front end aligned.
Any insights or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.
John Cowan
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John,
1) no the stem has to turn. It is supposed to be tight in the socket and
the angular orientation is changing eveytime you turn the steering wheel.
2) No. Only if the stem has freeplay is the tie rod trashed. With the
nut tight yo should not be able to wiggle the tie rod or the wheel and see
relative movement. If you do then you do have bad tie rods.
3) No but if you are worried about it change it. They are cheap enough.
4) Not if they were torqued to specifications. It is possible that the nut
is a grade 2 nut and the threads were damaged due to overtorquing. You
might take the nut off and inspect the threads of both the nut and the tie
rod end. But if you are going to change them anyway...
Further, a loose tie rod end could cause a shimmy but tighening one should
reduce or eliminate a shimmy, not worsen it. The shimmy is caused by
something else. What? I don't know.
Good luck
Dave
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