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Expert rack & pinion HELP NEEDED!

03whtexpsprt

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Joined
May 10, 2011
Messages
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Year, Model & Trim Level
03 sport
I have an 03 Explorer Sport 4x4 4.0 sohc. I keep getting a click/thunk/thump noise coming from my driver side near the outter arm on the rack and pinion when I swing out to back in my driveway and get a similar noise when I hit bumps a certain way. Also I have replaced my whole front suspension just before the 100k mile mark(upper and lower ball joints, upper control arms/bushings, inner and outter tierods, swaybar links/pins and the sway bar bushings...did the shocks a while back). Today I had my buddy cut the wheel all the way left(towards the drivers side) then jerk it back 1/2 turn while I was under the Exp and I narrowed the noise to come from the area where the boot covers the shaft that comes out of the rack and pinion. I am not sure wether I should try and replace the inner tierods (for the 4th time, changed em once when I got it and again when I did everything else, then again to see if that was it) or do the rack and pinion. Also I would need a step by step instruction page on how to do this because I have never done a rack and pinion on an explorer before. THANKS! EXPERT HELP IS PREFERRED A.S.A.P!
 



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Hmmmmmm this is a tough one. Im far from an expert, but my bet when I read the 1st half of this was the tierods.... my girlfriends CRV had a similar problem but the front end needed some TLC. How do your tierod ends look?
 






If your rack has over 100K miles now, replace it..
 






Blee1099, I got back under it to look at it better and I think I can hear the noise possibly coming from the upper balljoint on the driver side(which is where the noise is coming from). It is either that or the rack and pinion. It's pretty hard to hear where it exactally is when the vehicle is running. The rack and pinion has 0 leaks coming from it. When I put my hand on the upper contol arm I can feel a decent click from it but I can't really see anything "popping".
 






every vehicle i had and have when i hear popping it usually is ball joints this is to include strut and lower control arm suspension and torsion bar dual a arm truck suspension. only way i could find tie rods was in shake downs and a serious "bump-steer" also a shimmy on the road indicates tie rods. if the truck is not all over the road and shacking side to side on bumps then i would lean towards a ball joint. also if your lifted by means of torsion twist then i would really check hard on the ball joints since the explorer suspension tends to eat up cv axles and ball joints once torsion twisted
 






Body mount bushing?
 






05dakotatrac - It just is irritating to me because I replaced the balljoints last summer with Moog ones! Every bit of the suspension I replaced with Moog parts( except for the shocks which are Rancho XL9000's and the cv axle). I used to never have a problem with their parts and after the past few vehicles I have worked on they seem to screw up more often. I am going to go and check it shortly. Will post an update later/ tomorrow. WidgetTrac......no, you are way off.
 






long shot, but maybe see if the bolts that hold the control arm have backed off. changing a rack in those are a monster PITA even on a lift
 






vroomzoomboom- I was thinking that could be a factor because when I got my alignment done at the place where I took it to get aligned said they needed to replace the camber bolt on the driver side because there was no adjustment.....Really?!?! So tell me how do they do it from the factory! Anyways I noticed it does seem to move a little more movement in it than the passenger side which has the o.g camber bolt in it.
 






you can set the camber with the factory bolts, but only to a certain point. they do sell after market cam. adjusters form moog. most guys (if they are smart) that have either lifted or lowered their trucks by way of a TT have put them in. if the bolts are tight, and the upper control arm moves, but not the ball joint, another long shot, but maybe the bushings are shot as well
 






vroomzoomboom-I replaced those when I did the control arms. Yeah, I adjusted the pas. side back to spec on my own with the o.g camber bolts. The alignment shop could not adjust the driver side. So they replaced that one with the moog camber bolt set. The rear bolt(closest to the firewall) on the upper control arm was a little loose :mad: . I got another turn/ 1 1/2 turn out of it. Also I checked the upper balljoint and it was ok. I popped it out of the knuckle and it was fine, no slop up and down or any extra side to side. So we shall see if that did the trick. Seems to be ok for now.Fingers are crossed! :)
 






Turns out it was my passenger hub that was bad. I never wanted to show play/slop in it until I did a oil change and tire rotation the other day.
 






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