Hi all,
My front driver's side wheel does not turn with the steering wheel (although the passenger side one does.) When I rock the passenger side wheel the suspension and car rocks with it but when I rock the driver's side wheel the car stays still and the wheel has about a quarter-inch play, which I know is not right. Is this a tie rod issue or something deeper? I can't move it into my garage so I can work on it but I can try to lift it and repair it in short spurts.

 

yeah, sounds like either the inner or outer (or both) tierod(s) are loose. jack the front of the car up and shake the wheel side to side while having some one look for whats loose (you can do it by yourself if you know what to look for), and obviously dont drive the vehicle until this is fixed

 

Jacked it up and removed the wheel today. Looks like the tie rod end snapped off, it seems like an easy part to replace but the part of the tie rod on the wheel assembly side is lower than the other broken part attached to the chassis. Am I going to need a specific tool to compress the suspension so that I can attach a new end properly?

 

No tool other than a tie-rod u-shaped remover (impact versions work much better than the hammering version). Adjust as close as it was before, then go to an alignment shop.

 

That part attached to the wheel side swivels 360 degrees (not quite). You should be able to line it up using your hands.

 

You will need a tie rod seperator/pickle fork to remove the rod ends from the center link, idler arm and pitman arm. If one has snapped off, replace all 4 along with the 2 adjusting sleeves. Pickle fork is less than 15 bucks, I've had mine for nearly 30 years. You will also need a 3-4 lb hand sledge.

Before you remove the tie rods, measure each side for center to center length, then match the new ones to that same length. This will keep the adjustment close enough until you can get it down to the alignment shop.