Tip of the week: Tie rods/ pitman arm/ idler arm
 

I replaced my inner and outer tie rods. Best damn thing i have done to my car in a long time. And my stock ones were in great shape when I took them out. I also replaced the pitman arm and the idler arm with a Moog unit. I had new busings in the idler and on previous cars the Moog didn't make much of a difference over new stock bushings, but still she drives like new again. New steering everything up front really let me know the condition of my worm box. Ready for a new de-powered GSL-SE box now :D
I bought everything off rockauto.com Don't worry about what brand you buy as I bought some Moog stuff and some other brands and they were both made in the same factory.

i just did the same thing a couple of weeks ago. but i am having problems with the alignment. when replacing my tie rod ends i snapped the stud that connects the tie rod ends together. i have bought new studs but since one was broke i didnt have anything to reference the length of the tie rods assembly... so now my alignment is way off. whats the best way to roughly re-align it to where i can drive it to the alignment shop? right now its very scary to drive...

The string method is cheap, easy, accurate and reliable:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...=string+method

If you do it right, you won't need an alignment shop, they can't do as good a job.

you'll only be changing toe...

glad to hear you got something good accomplished on the 7. i shoudl really start replaing my front end. might firm up the steering a bit!

thanks guys... this info really helps.

Did you notice any play in your old tie rods when you replaced them? I've been thinking about replacing mine but when I checked they seemed very solid.

I also keep thinking about replacing them, but everything feels solid, I even replaced the bushings in the idler arm, never checked the pitman tho. I think I'm going to go over it all again because I still have play in the steering, not much just a little and when I wiggle the wheel in the area that has play, the pitman arm is visibly moving so I'm pretty sure it's not the worm-box. So this thread has me thinking.

the reason i replaced mine were while i was upgrading my suspension i noticed that my grease boots were really worn out and my idler arm bushings had completely disappeared (turned to dust). so i decided to replace all of it less the pitman arm. the steering has improved. now i only have about a half inch of play in my steering. not sure how to get the rest of the play out of the steering short of replacing it with a rack and pinion set up.

um if you have the time, there are 3 adjustments on the 81.5+ steering box. there is one on the column side that looks like it would really help, but i don't have any tool for.

the other two are on top of the box, the the big gland nut, and the flathead screw.

one is basically effort, and the other is play. it took quite a white of fiddling to get mine right. the first time i ended up with tons of play and high effort, round two is normal effort and almost no play.

its helpful to have the front end in the air, and turn the wheel to make sure it doesnt tighten up when you turn the wheel

Is it true that you have to be extremely cautious when adjusting these, otherwise you may damage the box?

the flathead screw is the weakest part. the only thing that is tight is the big giant nut. everything else is almost hand tight.

so yes, but its more like after loosening the big (50-80lbsft) nut, you need to realize that a 10mm screw only needs a screwdriver, not an impact gun.

also a good time to make sure the steering box is tight to the frame, every other car in the world has problems with that.

From what I understand if you mis-adjust the steering box, it will increase the wear rate of the box by quite a bit. That was posted several times in the thread on this in the archive. But no-one has verified this, just posted it as a fact...

it is fact with all worm gear steering boxes. ours is nothing special. if you tighten them too much the wear rate increases and the steering wheel will not return to center.

it makes sense if you have it too tight (remember there are TWO adjustments!) it'll wear quicker, but when? and how many miles DO you put on your car?

with both adjustments, you get rid of the slop without having it super tight.