Front end shake

[xenogears_32]

Hi there,

I have an '85 SR5 standard. I have been browsing this forum for a while and find you all to have the best attitudes of any car forum ever..
I appreciate that. I have utfs and browsed for an answer to my dilemma to no avail. Anyways, The problem I am having is in the front end. The passenger side wheel Shakes as if it is going to come off. Only when in a left hand corner and only when off the throttle. I have new cv's in and have checked all the tierod and ball joint. The shaking is violent but it doesn't translate through the wheel very much. The suspension parts are all tight and there is almost zero play in the steering as well as the balljoint.

Any Idea's would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tyler

[hberdan]

Sounds very serious, I wouldn't drive that until you could put it up on a lift or jacks and take a look at the front stabilizer bar and the attachment points of the strut, make sure nothing is cracked or bent.

[scouttster]

For starters, I guess you could squat down in front of the wheel ( along side of it ) and grab the wheel / tire left and right ( as if to give it a hug ) and twist it in a left to right motion.. As you do this, watch the steering wheel. If the wheel/tire moves more than a few inches back and fourth and the steering wheel doesnt move - you have something broken in there.. Dont drive it! Also, try grabbing the top of the wheel / tire and try shimmy'ing back and fourth ( top to bottom motion ) Should be very little movement there.. If it moves considerably, dont drive it...

[teranfirbt]

Have you checked the inner tie rod ends? Those had about 1/16" of slop in mine and were causing both of my front wheels to shake, cured the problem right up when I replaced em.

[Barto]

Have you checked the inner tie rod ends? Those had about 1/16" of slop in mine and were causing both of my front wheels to shake, cured the problem right up when I replaced em.

Now that I have owned three of these things every single one of them has or is needing inner tie-rods very easy to change and I have had great success with a tape measure alignment after.

[garyfish]

inner tie rod ends for your '85 T4WD SR5 are available online from Rock Auto as closeout items

http://www.rockauto.com/

Beck Arnley Part No. 1014081
$8.49 each + shipping


while you're at it, you may wanna check out all of RA's closeout parts for your '85:
http://www.rockauto.com/RSS/vehiclefeed ... &html=true

can get a 5% discount at checkout by entering the following code: 26697771521287

not sure if the RA code at the top of the forum home page is still active... the code given here was sent to me by RA and is good until March 7th, 2010

[tercelwill]

Yea the code doesn't work.

on the other thing. Have you checked your left wheel bearing or the bushings on your rack mounts?

If that looks good I'd start looking for cracks in the sub-frame.

[xenogears_32]

Thanks for all the responses. The inner/ outer tie rods look/feel good and the ball joints are really tight and look new plus the rubber is very "fresh" appearing. I will get it jacked up again this week and check the rack mounts and swaybar mounts. Wouldn't a bad bearing be making at least a little noise? And if it were that the bearing would be torn to hell by now?

And one more thing as I haven't found a definitive answer on the forum for this question.....I have the 3 port distributor and was wondering which ports could be eliminated. The very bottom is the vac advance I believe but I would like a diagram and please don't say "take it off and suck to see which advances/ retards".


Thanks once again,

Tyler

[tercelwill]

bad bearings don't always make noise but it wouldn't hurt to check them out.
I'd look inspect the steering and suspension again. the best way is to have the car on it's wheels and have a helper rock the steering wheel back and forth while you feel for play in a the components. Any play whatsoever and the part needs to be replaced.

however the more i think about it the more it sounds like frame damage. i've never heard about a bad component causing that kind of problem. My tercel had an extremely violent shake on the passenger side at anything over 30 mph. it turned out to a long crack that had been hiding from me.

[blade]

ok i have had the same problem with another car I had,I would cheak the strut where it blots up to the back ot the rotor look for any cracks of any size and look to see if the inner rod on the strut is broken or bent. that is what was wrong with mine . hope this helps.
Blade

[wireguy]

I have a similar situation with my 86. Turns out the problem is actually in the rack and pinion steering assembly and not in tie rods or bearings. Verified by 2 separate maechanics. I haven't fixed it yet.

[xirdneh]

i always start with the tire
get it balanced and checked out for other flaws