Alright so i’ve been searching the forums like a mad man this morning. So heres my story of woe and remorse. Couple weeks ago my steering got all funky. So i took it to a shop and the guy told me my rack and pinion are bad. So i figured i could do the work myself. I went out to kragens bought a rebuilt rack and pinion, with a warrenty, and brand new tie rod ends. I did the work myself, I changed up the rack and pinion, I installed new tie rod ends, and the ES dust boots. I finished up put everything back together and took the car for an alignment. The guy at the shop said looked like i did a good job. BUT he said that while he was doing the alignment taht my upper ball joints were broken and he couldn’t fix my alignment properlly. He said my caster was off. I asked him if i could drive the car in the mean time till I could save up to get my alignment fixed. He said it shouldn’t be a problem. So i drove it round town for about 2-3 weeks. short trips nothing major, Every now and then the car would pull violently back and forth but i figured it was just that upper ball joint being wierd. So finally I save up enough money to buy 2 brand new upper control arms. I take the car home this weekend Jack it up and i plan on installing hte upper A arms and my ES kit. All excited i get under the car and i notice my tie rod ends look kinda greasy, I inspect closer and realize theres HUGE amounts of machine grease ooozing from the ES dust cover boot i slipped over the tie rod end. Curious i look further up only to find in horror that BOTH of my rack and pinon boots are SHREDDED like a mofo =D. WTF is going on! why are they torn this bad?! Why are my tie rod ends so greasy Am i gonna ahve to blow another 400 bucks again!? Is it finished or can i repair this or should i ask for a new rack and pinon or what. THis is giving me a headache I was just about to be excited for getting my car in a position to be drivable and now its got 2 torn rack boots looks like 2 leaking tie rod ends and 2 broken upper ball joints. Sigh* someone PLEASE give me some ideas/ solutions to this ASAP im freakin out here
BUMP! :dance:
bump please :bawl:
what do the ES boots cover? were they a replacement for something that came with the new rack?
pics would help
No working camera sorry no the dust boot covers slip over the boot of the ball joints. :sad:
is the boot touching the chassis? does the boot stretch when you do full turns? did you put clamps on the boots? if you did your not suppose to unless the rack came with inner tie rods on them and comes with the boot with the special clamps. after you service inner tie rods or racks, you dont need to clamp those boots down specially the outter part of the boot. zip ties will work just fine. the boot needs to slide on the inner tie rod and the rod needs to turn when doing an alignment. hth
k nonononono im not saying this right, I have a brand new rack came with inner tie rods came with boots all zip tied down, those boots are torn, THEN i have outter tie rods that have dust boots on their ball jionts I slipped THE ES boot cover over those, SO NOW in total i have grease all over my OUTTER tie rod ball joints and 2 torn inner boots. got it? CAN I JUST REPLACE THE INNER BOOTS?
yeah you can just replace the inner boot but i have no idea with all the grease from the outter tie rod. don’t know how those ES boot cover are like. all outter tie rods have a boot on them already. never heard of people using another sort of boot cover for the outter tie rod. :shrug:
The ES covers are replacements for damaged ball joint covers.
You are supposed to remove the old damaged ball joint covers to install the ES covers!! If you put them over the Factory (in you case after market) ball joint covers it will squease out the grease.
I’ve done tons or work on DA suspensions over the years, I don’t install the ES ball joint covers unless the factory covers are torn. The factory covers keep out more road grine than the ES covers. I’ve even had ES covers fail due to they are less flexable than the factory covers. The factory covers also have a metal ring the holds the cover top tight to the ball joint, ES does not.
OIOooOOoOOooOOo shiat i wish ES would put that info in their instructions! thanks a ton. So i got a new rack an pinion from kragens cause the one they sold me is shit, BUT i de threaded my lbj castle nut trying to remove it to get off the LCA. sigh nutcracker here i come. :getsome:
when your suspensions funked up…be like me and get a new shell…91rs4dr baby! ima swap over everything from my old car…and this new shell is painted a nice panther black…soon to switch the Arms/Legs an The Eyes and finally the heart over to a nicer cleaner sexier body…:)…
…if i was you …i wouldnt waste my time and get a new shell…but theres always different solutions with different problems…
so wait your saying i should get a rolling shell instead? and just swap everylittle thing over?
umm sorry I dont have advice for your problem, but i do know that getting a new shell is possibly the worst idea
God only knows what you’re getting yourself into when buying a “new” shell.
Sounds like you’re on your way to solving the problems. Good luck.
yea i agree im just gonna replace the problems