Limping home

Heard a weird creaking (no, not the exhaust, haha) as I backed out of my
parking spot. Pulled out onto the highway and all of a sudden there's this
violent oscillation, kinda like you'd get with a bent axle/wheel only felt
like it was up and down as well as side to side... jelly-like feel to the
steering, imagine hitting a smooth wavey lubed surface. Definitely felt like
the two ends of the car weren't connected.

I discover the car is fine under 20 mph, but once over the next bump makes
it go apesh*t. Flashers on, pull over and look underneath, no apparent
problem. ??

Back inside, off the highway, and start a four mile limp home at 20mph
during rush hour.

Finally get home and discover I can turn the right front wheel from side to
side with my hands... without the other wheel turning! That got me in the
ballpark... wouldn't think these things would just pop out like that.

http://www.mindspring.com\~miker4\mtr.jpg

Light rust but no real damage... weird!

So, what is the appropriate repair? Nothing looks broke, but I'd hate to
have it happen again.

On Nov 17, 9:59*pm, "miker" > wrote:
> So, what is the appropriate repair? Nothing looks broke, but I'd hate to
> have it happen again.

Well it's pretty obvious, based on the picture, that the threaded part
of the tie-rod end pulled out/separated from the tie-rod. I would not
just re-assemble as this problem will most certainly happen again.

If it was my car I'd change both the tie-rod end and the tie-rod and
get an alignment after setting the toe by eye. It looks like corrosion
got the best of your parts and maybe there is some impact damage that
you didn't know about that weakened the part?

Chris

<<It looks like corrosion
got the best of your parts and maybe there is some impact damage that
you didn't know about that weakened the part?>>

I doubt there's impact damage, but the car has been driven thru 4 winters
now, and we salt pretty heavily plus the car was kept in a 45 degree
underground garage - I always wondered if salt would be worse on a car that
was kept above freezing..

My kudos to the car for 1) not putting me in a spectacular crash, and 2)
failing within limping distance of home.

miker

"miker" > wrote:

> So, what is the appropriate repair? Nothing looks broke, but I'd
> hate to have it happen again.

Replace both parts. My guess is the internal threads are damaged but
replace both anyway.


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