100 Series General Tech and Classifieds

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

I reindexed my tbars yesterday to bring the front end up from 19 3/8 to 21 1/4.
Rear is at 22 1/4
(all measurements are center hub to fender)

This leaves 1" of rake with the SPC upper control arms installed on the front.

I took the 100 to a alignment shop and they said tie rods are bad and they will not do an alignment.
Never heard of tie rods going bad? Has anyone here heard that before?


Truck drives great with no slop in the steering but I am pretty sure the toe is out and needs adjusted.
 
pics of... my new stance?

I was trying to figure out WTF a tie rod is and why it needs to be replaced?
Sales dude did a piss poor job of even trying to explain their reasoning.

I agree... on going to a different shop.
 
The tie rods connect your steering rack to your front knuckles. You have inner and outer tie rods, but the shop would have only been able to see the outers on a 100. They can, and do, go bad over time, and alignment shops will often times bring bad ones to your attention. However, I've never had a TRE bad enough to where a shop refused to do an alignment.........
100 tie rod end.webp
That's not to say they never get to that point, I've just never had one that bad.....it'd be worth checking your with another shop
 
Last edited:
How can you tell if it's bad?
Play in the wheel when the front is lifted?

Pics of steering rack with small leak and tie rods and my new stance which looks and drives great.

20150627_120504.webp
20150627_120037.webp
20150627_115958.webp
 
Last edited:
Put a floor jack under the lower control arm and jack it up until the tire is off the ground. Grab the tire at the 3 o clock and 9 o clock positions and check tie rods for slack. Repeat on the other side.
 
Yep, got a very small amoubt of play.
Should there be zero amount of play?
 
Is it the inner tie rod, outer tie rod or the rack and pinion bushings? Also grab the tire at the 12 and 6 position and check for slack. If you have slack there it could be your wheel bearings.
 
offr0adlim0 said:
Is it the inner tie rod, outer tie rod or the rack and pinion bushings? Also grab the tire at the 12 and 6 position and check for slack. If you have slack there it could be your wheel bearings.
Click to expand...
I did that earlier too. The play there was like less than 1/4"... I would believe wheel bearings is the issue at "play" here
 
Nottajeep said:
I took the 100 to a alignment shop and they said tie rods are bad and they will not do an alignment.
Never heard of tie rods going bad? Has anyone here heard that before?
Click to expand...

Yes, and yes.
Last month I put a new suspension on my mother's 2000 Camry and sent her to the alignment shop in Troy. They told her the exact same thing. So back to eBay I went for some new Tierods and had her come up here to have a friend install them and align it... The TRE's were in fact loose as a porn star.
Keep in mind, her car was driving an steering great, but aligning it after brand new TRE's and TR's.... made it so much smoother. Her's having that plus a new suspension with really new tires makes it ride like a brand new sled.
 
Wheel bearing repack is long overdue and is going to be my first shot at resolving this. Roughly 1/4" of play

Very little TRE failure info on the 100 board which tells me this is unlikely but not out of the question.
There is just no good way to tell TRE failure w/o replacement I guess?
 
I'm no mechanic, but the ones I've seen labeled "bad" would move and flop around. It should be tight and only movable when tightened to to something.
 
Nottajeep said:
Wheel bearing repack is long overdue and is going to be my first shot at resolving this. Roughly 1/4" of play

Very little TRE failure info on the 100 board which tells me this is unlikely but not out of the question.
There is just no good way to tell TRE failure w/o replacement I guess?
Click to expand...

Depends on how bad it is. If they're real bad, you can feel the play when you pull on the tie rod.

Maybe have someone else turn the wheel back and forth (engine off, full weight on the ground) while you feel for play.
 
@jasonbraswell

I had some play in my inner tie rods on the 100 seres with 208k miles. Jack on the front end, hold the tire at 3 and 9, and wiggle it back and forth. Pay attention to the steering rack/outter tie rod connection and the outer tie rod/wheel connection. Use your judgement and determine where the play is coming from.

If you have play when wiggling from the 12 and 6 position then I would suspect the wheel bearing preload rather than the i/o tie rods.
 
A week out till my trip to Disney and I still don't have a passenger side head. Looks purdy though. @ton504 what do you think of your "old" engine?
image.webp
 
offr0adlim0 said:
A week out till my trip to Disney and I still don't have a passenger side head. Looks purdy though. @ton504 what do you think of your "old" engine?
Click to expand...

Im assuming you replaced the heads due to warpage? I figured since there wasn't any oil/coolant mix, it wasn't too bad. Guess my theory was wrong. At least the bottom end was good?
 
Bottom end was good. Heads were shot. Was looking at $900+ to try to salvage 2 of the 4 heads so I just ordered a new set of heads instead.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom