97 Explorer Knocking sound and feel

[PaulUK]

Hi,

Nice forum by the way , I am in the UK and have a quick quest
My explorer makes a almost metal faint clunk noise when I go forward or backwards slowly almost like a rotaional noise, also when i rock the steering wheel from left to right and vica - versa it makes a knocking noise.

I have asked my local mechanic to look and because explorers are not common in the UK, it is almost impossiable to find someone that knows what they are talking about !!!!!, the mechanic reckons it is the steering rack

when you hold the rack or the little bars that connect to the wheel you can almost feel the "knocking" sound,,,, any ideas or is it a new steering rack

All help would be appreciated, does anyone know of anyone in the UK that knows about explorer's

CHees
Paul

 

[rd_turbo]

My 01 Explorer had exactly what you describe. It turned out to be a really bad inner tie rod. I also had bad ball joints, which were replaced under warranty a couple of times too. I ended up replacing all four ball joints and inner and outer tie rods. Unfortunately for me, I opted for cheap Chinese parts so I'm back to square one...six months later. Mind you the OE ball joints replaced by the dealer only lasted two years each time. Welcome to the world of poorly designed and executed Fords. My advice would be to have a shop which specializes in front end work perform a throrough inspection. I think you'll find that you have at least one bad inner tie rod and that your lower ball joints have seen better days.