Screwy Steering problems.

MustangGT01

Founding Member

Mar 16, 2001

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Unemployment, Ohio

Oct 4, 2004

#1

• Oct 4, 2004

• #1

I have a 89 Mustang GT 5.0 automatic vert with some strange steering problems. I wanted to ask yall if yall had any better idea what was going on. Basically, what it amounts to is I have to turn the steering wheel farther to get it to turn at all. I checked the car in park and more or less to turn left the steering wheel is in the 9-8 o' clock position before the wheels even begin to turn. The same goes for turning right. I checked fluid levels and everything is normal. The slop in the steering while driving amounts to 10-2 o'clock before the car make any noticable change in direction. I jacked up the car front drivers side and checked for slop in the wheel and had an inch either way. This is the same side I replaced an inner tie rod not more than 9 months ago. I checked the opposite side as well and found slightly less than 1/4 inch slop either way. The wheel itself is not hard to turn like in a power steering pump failer situation. It feels normal other than the excessive turning required. Any thoughts as to what the problem may be? TIA.

 

HISSIN50

"How long does it take to get help in here?

15 Year Member

Nov 29, 1999

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Oct 4, 2004

#2

• Oct 4, 2004

• #2

time for a new/reman'd rack (Includes new inner tie rods). then get some new outers since you are doing this stuff.

another thing to check is the rag joint.

good luck.

 

MustangGT01

Founding Member

Mar 16, 2001

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Unemployment, Ohio

Oct 5, 2004

#3

• Oct 5, 2004

• #3

another thing to check is the rag joint.

Click to expand...

What the hell is that?

 

HISSIN50

"How long does it take to get help in here?

15 Year Member

Nov 29, 1999

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Oct 5, 2004

#4

• Oct 5, 2004

• #4

MustangGT01 said:

What the hell is that?

Click to expand...

if you find that you have slop in the steering shaft/linkage (many do - i.e. turn the wheel but the tires dont move - in your case you have other issues also - rag joint is likely at least partially at fault).

it is a U-joint type deal on the steering shaft (some cars have one in the engine bay before the rack, some also have one inside the car - i cant remember how many stangs have). just like a driveshaft u-joint, they get sloppy and allow one to move the wheel w/o turning the tires.

good luck.

 

MustangGT01

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Mar 16, 2001

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Unemployment, Ohio

Oct 5, 2004

#5

• Oct 5, 2004

• #5

Thanks for the replies guys. I feel like such a damn moron now. I hopped in MY 89 hatch to go to the parts house to order up a new rack and noticed something.... mine does the same damn thing when turning the wheels. For crying out loud I could hit myself in the head with a bag of hammers. Either both are crapped out or there is nothing wrong with the rack on the GT. Also while I looked in the boots I didn't see any leaks or whatnot.

I did crawl under today and looked at the inner tie rod because of what I noticed with mine. The same damn tie rod I replaced 9 months ago is bad. I would say it's worse than the last time I replaced it. I'm not sure if it's due to the crappy Wayne County roads in Ohio or I just got a bum part. I checked with the parts house and it does have a warrenty on it for replacement. I'm going to go the cheap out this time and just swap out the tie rod for warrenty untill I get a paying job for a complete rack swap.

I know the rag joint thing you mentioned now. I can't remember how many there are on it either but I'll check them out and see if they are bad. Thanks for the advise guys.

 

R

ratrapp

New Member

Apr 24, 2004

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buena vista,va

Oct 5, 2004

#6

• Oct 5, 2004

• #6

what brand tierod did you use?we used to use alot of trw parts but they started to fail quickly or weren't anygood out of the box so we switched to spicer and have had very few failures since.

 

HISSIN50

"How long does it take to get help in here?

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Nov 29, 1999

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Oct 5, 2004

#7

• Oct 5, 2004

• #7

dont forget to factor in alignment costs in your cost assessments. needing an additional alignment can make 'the cheap route' less enticing in the event of future failure. good luck.

 

jaketuff

Member

Apr 29, 2003

159

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Westchester, NY

Oct 5, 2004

#8

• Oct 5, 2004

• #8

Rack swap cost / idea? Sounds ugly......

OUT

 

HISSIN50

"How long does it take to get help in here?

15 Year Member

Nov 29, 1999

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Oct 5, 2004

#9

• Oct 5, 2004

• #9

jaketuff said:

Rack swap cost / idea? Sounds ugly......

OUT

Click to expand...

huh?
when i did mine, it was ~100 bucks for the rack (with new inner tie rods).

swapping a rack is pretty straight forward.

 

MustangGT01

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Mar 16, 2001

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Unemployment, Ohio

Oct 6, 2004

#10

• Oct 6, 2004

• #10

Swapping the rack isn't a problem. It's easy enough considering other stuff on a Mustang. The most expensive one they had, (rack for a Mustang w/performance suspention), was $114 by itself. Outer tie rods ran about $25 a side. An alignment around here also runs about $50 total.

The parts guy suggested I could get by with a $75 rack though as well instead of the more expensive model. I'm not sure what brand the inner tie rod was that I got though. I believe it was a TRW brand seen here. It did have a lifetime warrenty though so a swap out won't cost more than the alignment. I'm hoping I just got a bad tie rod from them this one time but from what you're saying it may just be a manufacturer thing. I'll check and see what other brand they may carry but they may only honer a direct swap. If it's the case it'll have to hold me till I can get a steady job. In these parts of OH it's not all that easy.

 

HISSIN50

"How long does it take to get help in here?

15 Year Member

Nov 29, 1999

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Oct 6, 2004

#11

• Oct 6, 2004

• #11

not sure what to tell you about the differences. on my 88 GT vert, there were 4 options. ford QR (quick ratio) rack, ford non QR, TRW QR and TRW non QR. i cleaned mine up and saw that it was a ford QR, so that is what i went with.

good luck with it all, bud.