[Maxmil982]

I just finished changing both inner tie rods (I put the new inner and outer tie rods in at virtually the same length as the old ones, to keep the alignment pretty close). Now that it's back together the steering wheel is basically straight and the car drives straight, but while driving and making a turn, the steering is acting crazy. Its hard to describe but the steering feels loose and totally disconnected from the wheels. When I go to make a sharp turn, the wheel turns ok for the first revolution, but then after that, the steering wheel starts turning by itself the rest of the way. I just drove down the street and came back. I'll be getting an alignment in the morning. Does this sound like just an alignment issue?

The steering just feels way too off and I'm thinking something else is broken in the steering rack, because the alignment isnt that far off from before the repair. Only thing out of the ordinary that I did while changing the tie rods was pushing and pulling the tie rods all the way in and out about 5 or 6 times, on each side, during the repair. I'm wondering if that messed something up. There isnt any other symptons besides the steering being compketelt fked up. Anybody have any ideas?

[jwalker87]

Yes - that is an indicator of wildly-off toe (even if it drives straight, which just indicates the out-of-alignment is equal on both sides). Counting threads, and even measuring total length of the tie rods, doesn't account for wear of parts, so doesn't work for the detailed alignment. Should be fine to get you to the alignment, but if you're concerned you can do a somewhat-DIY toe alignment at home just by sticking a tape measurer under the car and measuring the distance between the front of the wheels (left-to-right) and rear of the wheels (left-to-right). As in, how many inches is the front of the left wheel away from the front of the right wheel? Sticking a straightedge down from the wheel or tire, avoiding the bulge near the bottom, helps, as does putting some tape on the floor and marking where that is for repeatable measurements. You're not looking for perfection here, just making sure you don't have INCHES of toe-out/in.