worn strut or worn ball-joint
 

I recently changed the front wheel bearings on my car and after finishing the first wheel found something loose on the driver's side. At first I thought I had left too much play in the bearing, so I redid the tightening/torqueing sequence. It turned out to be something else as the bearings were done exactly to FSM specs and the other side turned out nice and tight. I found the problem while tugging on the wheel after the install. My question is, how do I tell which is the culprit? I shook the wheel with my hands on the front and rear of the wheel(horizontal) and it felt tight, but when I pulled with my hands on top and bottom(vertical) it moved very slightly, but noticably. Am I looking at a bad strut, or ball joint? I couldn't tell exactly because I pulled at the strut itself and it didn't seem to move at all. I'm also beginning to think whatever this is may be causing my excessive wander in road grooves I asked about a while ago. Any tips or ideas on pinpointing the problem here? Thanks a bunch if you can help. :(

that SOUNDS like either a lower ball joint (aka tie rod end) or the ball joint itself. NGK or MOOG brand are both good for replacement parts. It usually runs about 50 bucks per side, per item, and I'd reccommend doing all of them at the same time. The wiggle test is the best (in my opinion) test without any specific tools. If they are anything like my 240 (nissan says it needs to have the entire lower control arm replaced when replacing the ball joints :rolleyes:) they need to be pressed out by a machine shop, I havn't replaced the ones on my rx7 yet, however I will be soon.

-Mike

From your description of the vertical shake test, it's pointing to the ball joint. Very easy to change - There are two bolts holding it in, plus the pinch bolt holding it to the spindle.

The FSM and parts catalogs say I have to do the entire arm for my '90. Is there a way to change them out without buying a new control arm? Would it be something like the non-replaceable front bearings or driveshaft u-joints?

'89/'91 no replaceable ball joints. Have someone shake the wheel at 12 & 6 while you look under there. Be sure it's the ball joint and not bushings in the lower arm. If it is the ball joint buy some '88 arms and put new ball joint(s) on those.

Ok, so '86-'88 arms will swap in directly? I know the attachments for the sway bar are different but I already have those covered. The arms are the same dimensions and locations and everything though, right? I'm planning on getting help on it this weekend to locate the exact problem (i'm not planning on throwing a few hundred down the tubes on useless fixes here) but I'm checking out the options on repair/upgrade to repairable parts on this turkey.

So what ever happened Rattaan?

Wow this was dead for awhile wasn't it? :D Anyway, the struts are worn, but I went back and retightened/reseated the front bearings again. That helped a little for the wiggle I had, but no change in the road wander. I recently put new tires on the car, and guess what..... no more wander. I went from the Khumo supra 712 in a 205/55 to a Yokohama AVS es100 in the same size and lost alot of road noise, some roughness in the ride(cd player skips less often in the headunit) and picked up a bit more traction. If they wear anywhere close to the Khumos, then I'd say they are well worth the extra $16 or so per tire. I still plan on changing the struts/shocks soon, but may also do the springs too(car is leaning like the springs are sagging on the front drivers side especially) so it'll be pushed back a few more weeks, or months :o: Anyway, it's alot more comfortable to drive everywhere now.

Thanks for the update! Glad you got some tires that worked for you:)

James

I also have kuhmo's in 225/50/16 on some rota's... They wander and make road noise, but they do grip well and they were cheap.