I've never messed with one of these before. I know the tie rod assembly should have no movement on its end. On the drag link, is there supposed to be movement on those links at the pittman arm and the tie rod assembly (connecting left to right wheels) ends??

 

To my knowledge NOTHING in the front end should have any play or movement other than a smidgen at the steering box.

 

I've hunted and hunted. Mine I can rotate with my hands. I don't feel side to side. Feels like a ball/socket end but am not sure

 

Rotate is different.. YES you can rotate it...That's ok

 

I'm not sure if I can explain this correctly but here it goes,


All of these joints MUST move in some capacity. If you look at what they are doing/connecting, they are keeping the steering mechanisms connected together through a couple planes of movement. The tires turns left and right to some finite position. They also move up and down based on load, road surface, etc. So in order to be able to move in all of these positions/directions, they are connected at each end with a ball/socket. This allows movement along each motion. If they didn't need to move, you could just use a bolt and nut to connect them (or just have a solid bar.)




Where they should NOT move is in relation to their connecting points. The ends should not be able to move up/down based on the end of the tie rod compared to the "hole" that they are bolted through. The end should also not move side to side compared to that same hole.


If you get a pry bar between the 2 connected pieces, there should be no movement relative to each other. If you get someone to turn the wheel back and forth, you should also see no relative movement. If the joints are bad, you should be able to see, feel, and/or hear a clunk. If you hold one of the components when you have a bad one, you will know it. It may not be the actual worn part, but you will know something is just not right. Then it is just a matter of carefully watching each part to see where the problem is.