Front shocks weirdness and loose steering?

[ajr2000]

Front shocks weirdness and loose steering? *FIXED*

So as I was driving on the highway today, the explorer didn't feel right. It was kinda swurving on it's own. It felt like the front driver side wheel was the problem. So, I jacked it up, and all seemed fine. Then I went over to the passenger side, and I noticed that I could twist the schock back and forth by hand. The driver side is solid. Is this bad? Is this related to the looseness in steering? What would cause looseness in steering like that? I really only noticed on the highway, but we'll see when I go to work soon.

 

[DeRocha]

Loose steering is caused by worn Tie rods and steering gear.. The faster you travel the more noticeable steering problem become.. In most cases you will need to rebuild or replace the steering gear.. but you can try and remove the slop from the steering gear by slightly tightening it's adjustment screw. You need to remove the air intake and loosen the lock nut on the adjustment screw. If you over tighten the screw the steering will be very hard and will not come back to center on its own..

 

[ajr2000]

Thanks.

I have an update. I also can hear serious clanking coming from the driver side rear wheel, or it could be the front, I'm not positive. Think it could still be the tie rods?

 

[DeRocha]

Tie rods won't make a clanging noise. When does the noise occur (what speeds, turning left to right, going over bumps, etc). You need to jack up the truck and examine the your shock to see if it is busted.

 

[ajr2000]

Well, you will never beleive this. The clanging noise was the wheel wobbling back and forth on the studs. The lugnuts were backed out about halfway. There's only two ways this could happen: 1. The mechanic didn;t tighten them properly 2 weeks ago. The rest of the lugnuts on the other wheels were somewhat loose too. Or, someone loosened them when I was seeing a movie with these two girls, which seems unlikely. Man am I pissed, the mechanic will be hearing from me tomorrow...

 

[DeRocha]

Wow... you were lucky you found it before you lost a wheel... I have After market rims on my X and the mounting instructions state to check the lugs after the 1st 25 miles..