alignment ?

[danyz250f]

I need my car aligned and I think I need some parts first. But not sure. I know I need ball joints, but what else? One bad thing when my car is off the ground I can move my tire back and forth. The play seems to be in the control arm joints. Do I need all new upper and lower control arms and joints? I am also doing all new struts.

Also If I do a 1 inch drop do I need a camber kit or is there enough ajustment it can still be aligned.

 

[eclipsh]

With a 1" drop you should be just fine with using the stock parts to realign your wheels.

Is the wiggle left-right or top-bottom? You may have worn out wheel bearings too. I had to replace one before getting my alignment.

 

[danyz250f]

I think jsut side to side. I could see the play in a joint behind the wheel. It kinda looks like a small ball joint. My car also kind drifts all over the road. Especially when you are driving on patchy ice. Like when one wheel is on ice and the other in dry pavement. The car shifts and doesn't drive straight.

 

[Locke]

Side-to-side tire movement, without up-and-down movement. The joint you are talking about would be your outer tie rod end.

Replace it (loosen jam nut and castle nut, knock end out of knuckle, and thread end off tie rod) and if the handling doesn't improve, get an alignment. (Or get one anyways)

 

[danyz250f]

What about a 1.6'' drop with tein springs. Would I need a camber kit with those? I am slowly buying the parts. I am also looking at kyb gr2 struts and kyb agx struts, I am just not sure if its worth the 140 more for the ajustability. It might be auto x ed like 2 or three times this year.

 

[eclipsh]

If you've done your research you'll know that anything more than a 1" drop on stock-style struts will ruin them in short order. You need to use Koni Yellow inserts if you want a big drop without dead struts.

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

Side to side movement is the inner tie rod end. Grab the rod firmly before it goes into the boot and have someone try to move it side to side. What happens is the inner tie rod is like a ball and socket and with time is loses grease and the ball wears down and gets play. You can rent a tool from Autozone for replacing them. Just remember to count the numbers of turns on the outer tie rod end when you take it off so you can get it back on straight. To test the outer tie rod end, just grab the shaft. It should be very stiff and hard to move. If it's easy then it needs replaced as well.