[Supras] 89 NA Ball Joints continued

Tue Nov 27 10:28:50 CST 2007

Had to replace it because one of the boots was badly torn and the seal was leaking pretty bad too.  The front alignment was outta whack due to a previous incident on the way to SILV '01 (long story).

I think some people have had good luck getting their original rack resealed, but I needed to just get it swapped out ASAP.  Since your car is non-turbo, you most likely won't have to deal with the power progressive steering that the '89 & newer turbo Supra had.  I F'd up the modulator that controls the amount of assist and had to spend the $500 to buy a new one from Toyota! :-(

I don't think the replacement rack is too expensive if you have the hookups.  But be prepared to spend ~$300 just for the rack.  I think I spent about that when I replaced it on my silver '89n/a in '98.  I got that rack from AutoZone, BTW.  With my hookups now, I spend less than $200 for a rack!

Good luck,

Dave  92T & 84 P-type
Mesa, AZ
http://www.azsupras.com/suprattop.htm
http://www.azsupras.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bob 
To: 'Dave Koos' ; supras at supras.com 
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 8:57 AM
Subject: RE: [Supras] 89 NA Ball Joints continued

Why did you replace the rack?

I have some play in mine that I thought was the inner joint.  It turns out there was a hole in the bellows and there is some pitting on the rack.  I think I can live with the pitting if I can clean up the rack and replace the seat and rack guide.

There is some sort of preload on this part and I don't know if I can find the tools to replace these parts.

I am pricing a new rack right now just in case

Bob

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Dave Koos [mailto:dave at azsupras.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 10:01 AM
To: Bob; supras at supras.com
Subject: Re: [Supras] 89 NA Ball Joints continued

You may need new steering rack bushings!

When I replaced the rack on my '92T last year, one of the bushings was pretty much non-existent!  Bought new ones from the dealer, but don't remember how much the damage it was to my wallet!  It was an oil leak that caused the bushing to deteriorate.

HTH,

Dave  92T & 84 P-type
Mesa, AZ
http://www.azsupras.com/suprattop.htm
http://www.azsupras.com

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Bob 

To: supras at supras.com 

Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 6:48 AM

Subject: [Supras] 89 NA Ball Joints continued

For those of you who have nothing better to do then follow my exciting
exploits as I chase the elusive vibration in the front of my car. well the
next chapter has begun.

After replacing tires, brake rotors and calipers I decided that since I had
not replaced the ball joints, well. that was next on the list of things I
had to do before I die.

Surprisingly only one was bad and even that one may have been ok.  The
driver's side ball joint was not properly tightened down so the ball joint
shaft was spinning in the spindle.  It didn't do any damage to the spindle
and if the nut had not been rusted in place I might have been able to just
tighten the nut and been fine.

It looks like this ball joint had been loose since it left the factory, I
have owned the car since 1990 or so and I don't remember having to touch the
ball joints before. 

Anyway, I changed both of the joints as a precaution and A clunk went away.
The car feels tighter but the vibration is still there above 60 mph.

Now I have found a different clunk when I rock the steering wheel back and
forth.  I can tell it is coming from the driver's side of the rack and I
suspect it is from the inner tie rod end.  

The outer tie rod is fine and I find it hard to believe the inner one has
failed at 60K but there is a clunk.  Is there any other problem related to
the rack that could cause this noise and potentially the vibration?

Grabbing at straws.

Bob

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