[Shotimes] tie rods and rotors

[George Fourchy]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 12:09:21 -0800 (PST), Ian Fisher wrote:

>1. Do greasable tie rod ends wear out and go bad? I
>would assume that the ball and socket could wear but
>how does one determine if they have gone bad or not?

They will wear, but much, much slower than ungreasable ones.  The way to test them
is to have the wheels on the ground, and observe them when someone else turns the
steering wheel.  There should be very little, if any, play between the movement of
the tie-rod and the knuckle.  Just have your friend wiggle the wheel back and forth
a bit, enough to create a bit of movement in the tie rod, and you can see the
joint's wear, if there is any.  This is easiest to observe with the wheel turned all
the way one way or the other, so you can see the knuckle on the opposite side of the
turn.  Left knuckle is visible in a right turn.  Much more than a "silly millimeter"
is too much, as it will allow the knuckle to wobble slightly, changing the toe
setting and wearing the tires.  There is too much slop in the entire steering system
to check them off the ground.

>2. rotors-my 1 year old wilwood rotors are starting to
>show some signs of small grooves running around the
>rotor.

There are much more experienced brake experts here than me, but as long as there
isn't any warpage of the rotors, I'd just let them go.  If the car stops straight,
with no shaking of the pedal or the wheel, and no noise, I'd consider them fine. 
You could get rid of the grooves by smoothing off the pads....they cause the
grooves, so if you smooth them, the rotors will smooth out too, over time.

 Maybe I should put in an offer for
>the 1980 something Nissan Sentra down the street.
>Winter beater 5 speed. :-|

Keeping your SHO out of the salt and snow seems logical to me.  I lived in snow
country for a couple of years, but they don't use salt in Nevada.  I really feel for
you all that have to deal with that.  

George