I just replaced my steering rack and outer tie rod ends. I thought it would fix my wandering steering problem, but it didn't. What happens is when the road surface changes the car shifts left or right depending on the conditions. From what I can tell it's bump steer and from what I've read worn out tie rod ends causes that. It's not fixed so there must be something else wrong. Any ideas what else would cause the steering to be squirelly? Could worn out struts or a mess up alignment cause it? The front of the car rides higher becuase so much has been removed from the engine compartment. Could ride height be the problem?

 

Happens a lot with wider tires. You running wider than say 235s? My car does it ever since I installed the cobra rims and 245/45/17s...if your car is lowered then you may need a bump steer kit as they say which corrects the angles of the tie rods to the control arm when they're loaded and lowered.

 

Nope, stock wheels and tires but the ride height is higher than stock due to less weight up front. You think that's what's up?

 

Very well could be since anything that changes the angle of the tie rod when loaded from stock will cause bump steer.

 

I knew I should have gone with the bump steer kit instead of the stock tie rod ends. We'll see what happens win I get springs or coil overs like I really want. I guess I can deal with it until then.

 

Did you get an alignment after installing new tie rods? If not you should because your alignment is definitly out.

 

I did my own alignment which is easy to do. The hard part is measureing the alignment. I'm getting tires soon so I'm waiting till then for a prfessional alignment. It's really close as is. It pulls to the right a little. I was thinking the plies may have separated on the tires too. I've had that happen and it makes the car do wierd things. Anyway the tires are shot and I'll be getting new tires and an alignment soon. Hopefully that helps.

 

To much neg camber. I was doing an alignment on a 89 GT today did the same thing.

 

Just for curiosity, check the steering column where the column goes through the firewall. A rubber grommet should be in place at the firewall which keeps the steering column stabalized. I had this problem on my 95 GT.

Fox