Car Question - Not tools...

I wasn"t sure where else to ask a question like this - haven"t found too many leads elsewhere...

I"ve got a 1997 Mercury Cougar car with about 180,000 miles on it.

It"s been a great car - no problems - until last night.

I was slowly backing out of a concrete drive and turned pretty sharp at very low speed - I heard a pop under the car, but couldn"t find anything wrong.

When I took off, the front-end was jumping as if I"d busted a tie rod end and a front wheel was flopping around (have had several of those happen on pickups and one on the truck out at the farm).

I limped it home - it steers fine going down the road, except for "jumping" around while backing up or turning at low speed - it feels a lot like turning sharp in a Suburban in 4-wheel drive.

I jacked it up and can find no looseness in either front wheel - can"t find any linkages loose or broken - the wheels turn exactly in tandem with each other, etc, but something is definitely loose...

I"m not sure if the steering wheel is tracking exactly where it did before while going straight, but I can"t get it to "jump another tooth" if the steering gear box is loose enough to allow that...

Any ideas on what else to check???

Thanks for any advice,
Howard H.

When you back up the toe in causes the wheels to pull away or steer in opposite directions from each other.

When you are turning the error in turning radius geometry from one side wheel to the other causes the wheels to also pull away or steer towards each other.

It is very likely that you have either one or both tie rod ends worn to the point that they pop in and out of the sockets. Jack up one front wheel and leave the other on the ground. Then try turning the wheel which is jacked up from SIDE TO SIDE and I think you will see the tie rod end pop in and out of the socket. These tie rods probably cost about $40 each and you can replace them yourself. After tie rod replacement take it somewhere and have an alignment done to reset the proper toe-in.

If that is not the problem then I would suspect the lower ball joint which supports the front end load. Those are pressed in and hard to change in your garage. You could remove the arm and have a auto machine shop do it if necessary. Nasty job without the right tools.

There are also bushings on the inner end of the SLA and on the front end of the SLA stabilizer bars which could be worn.

My money is on the tie rod ends as I have seen them go bad. They will get loose enough to pop out ogf the socket completely and the wheel will make an abrupt turn. Not nice at all.

It's pretty odd - while I had the front end jacked up, both wheels spun freely and smoothly, there wasn't any play while trying to move the wheels vertically or horizontally.

And while turning either wheel from side to side (as the steering wheel would), both wheels turn smoothly together.

HH

Just a note to say thanks (and to all who offered bits of advice).

I finally found that the lower A-arm bolt in the frame had loosened on one wheel and was letting it pop back and forth about an inch.

I probably wouldn't have found it if you hadn't suggested jacking under the A-arm to loosen the spring!

Thanks,
HH

Or it could be a U-Joint bound in one direction and not the other.

I fought a U-joint on a 79 T-Bird for 60k miles as the symptoms were my steering wheel would pulse when I applied the brakes. It was the front U-joint that caused the plusing.

T_Bone

Charles

If it is a front wheel drive, likely you have a partially busted CV joint on one of the "halfshafts" that connect the transaxle to each front wheel.