While inspecting my brakes today with the wheels removed, I pulled and twisted the steering assembly I noticed that the tie rods have free play. I hear a knocking noise when I twist the assembly.

Is this a good test for the tie rods?

I found all the Moog parts on Amazon less than $300.

The ball joints felt tight. I took a pry bar and gently tried to move the ball joint on the driver side ball joint.

 

You check for in and out at the swivel, not twist.

 

Kinda strikes home here. The correct way to check the tie rods is to have someone watch the tie rod ends while the van is on the ground and the steering wheel is rocked right-left and look for any relative motion between the upper and lower halves of the joint. Putting a hand on the linkage to feel for any knock is ok too.

Another decent way is to have the van up on a lift and rock the tire right left and have someone watch the joint for that same right-left slack between top and bottom of the joint.

THE WRONG WAY is to take a pair of channel locks and squeeze the top and bottom of the joint and notice displacement.

I had some DOT approved mechanics doing that to my vans and failed every one of them when I tried to get my annual DOT sticker. These were fairly new vans with no handling issues whatsoever and so I called up MOOG and asked them about this and they told me DO NOT check tie rods by squeezing them with a channel lock. They have a spring in them that pushes the joint down as it wears so that it may have up down movement but the right-left movement is zero and the joint is still good. I brought this information from Moog back to the DOT approved shop and they blew it off. I went to another DOT approved shop to do my inspections and every van passed, same ones the other shop failed. And we're still running them today with the same tie rods, 100,000 miles later.

 

Tell me if I understand the MOOG test method. I have someone turn the steering back and forth (right to left) and watch for horizontal movement in the joints.

I grabbed on to the tie rod assembly like I was doing a pull up. I was able to rotate it both ways until it hit the physical stop. I could not feel any horizontal movement.

I did have the wheels off the ground. I will test it tomorrow using the methods you described above.

 

That is a much better description than I provided. It's what I was referring to as in and out.

 

I finished testing the tie rods by having my son rotated/rocked the steering wheel 180 degree from left to right and right to left. While doing this, I grabbed on to the tie rods and felt a clunking sound when the steering transitioned back. This suggest to me that there is horizontal play.

I could not see any horizontal play, but it has to be there because of the noise.

My next test will be to raise the wheels off the ground to feel for any horizontal play.

It would nice if it were only the tie rod ends that were bad. Wishful thinking. I changed the drag link on my E150 3 years ago and a year later, I had to change out everything including the ball joints. Fortunately, I paid for alignment guaranteed for a year. They were not happy when I brought it back the second time!

The E350 is gong to be about the same level of difficulty as the E150 with the exception of the wheels being a lot heavier!

I am open to any suggestions and experiences. I am good at copying other peoples experiences.

 

If you can just feel it a little bit but cannot see it, it might mean that the joint is just starting to go bad. They won't fail until well after you can see movement between the top and bottom half of the joint during the right-left steering wheel rock or tire rock test.

If it's eating up the tires and you don't want to wait, then you might want to fix it as soon as it has minimal play. Otherwise with just a little knock, it probably won't pop loose and veer you into oncoming traffic any time soon . Up to you.

 

I called Moog and the tech said about the same thing as Delgriffith. As long as there is no horizontal movement, I should be okay. I go to wheel works for lifetime alignment this Friday.

 

I have put on about 30,000 miles since posting this in 2016. Movement is about the same. I will wait for another 10,000 miles until replacing.

 

Thing to keep in mind when checking this type of bearing is that the limit is hardly anything, maybe 0.005" right? Anyway you can check it and keep up on it, so far so good, but when they do start to wear and show any wear, they wear FAST. It will be .05" and then .5" before ya know it. That's why the acceptable limit is so tiny.

 

I know some "wiseguys" in our Minnesota chapter. Get me the garage's name and they'll pay them a visit, maybe adjust their shop furnace for triple output! No charge of course. Signed, Vinnie Gambuchi.(Proud Ford owner)

 

unfortunately, Del sold his business and has moved on....

 

you shouldn't use channel lock pliers to check tie rod ends because that puts too much pressure on the joint. It can show movement even when the joint is not bad. Having the vehicle on the ground and start the engine and turn the steering wheel back and forth just a few inches, watch for side movement in the joints. If the joint pops up and down it's really bad. You shouldn't see any side movement it should be good. the tie rod should turn but not slide in the joint. Because your toe setting is usually in 1/32 inches + or - excessive side movement will change your driving toe setting.