Loosey goosey front end
 

A few weeks back I replaced the outer tie rods on my 99 2wd Ranger. I counted the threads and installed the new ones the same way. Oddly enough my truck is now all over the road more than before. The steering doesnt feel smooth. Quite notchy and it wont return to straight from full crank. Also when you hit a bump in the road it feels like the front wheels just point in the opposite direction of eachother.

Any ideas? I just had the front end in the air again and everything seems tight.....very minimal play in the ball joints

Make sure your power steering doesn't have any air in it.

Have you had it aligned?

X2

Like said above get it aligned. Anytime u mess with ball joints, tie rod ends or anything that will throw the tires out of alignment u need it realigned

hmm...i havent had it aligned. I always thought if you put the tie rod at the same amount of threads then it should be fine. Maybe it got aligned before with the worn out front end parts and now its way out of wack? I guess i will get the whole front end checked before aligning it. Thanks

If the tie rod end was wore out your alignment was already off. So you put the new one on and its already out of alignment

also more than likely the tie rod sleeve wasnt the same length as the original so that will throw it off even if u count hte same number of threads.

not necessarily, tie rods are a maintenance item. however, more than likely since he hasnt had the truck aligned it is out of alignment. alignments are supposed to be done once a year.

yeah which means its out of alignment no matter what he needs it aligned

Counting threads will get u close enough to drive it to the alignment shop!!
If you are a cheap sob like me and don't like paying for repeated alignments change out the ball joints that have "minimal play"(there should not be any play) first and then take it in for an alignment. Should tighten it right up.

well i will see if the shop says the ball joints do indeed need to be replaced. If thats the case then I can do that myself and then take it to the alignment shop. Thanks for the help