Downside to not replacing worn tie rod ends?

Here are some nicer pictures than in the Haynes:

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There IS one per wheel, I thought you meant one per car. Since there is one idler arm (which commonly wears) in pre or non rack & pinion steering I thought you might be confused with that.

You know, I tried the "shake test" on my left front wheel, and the wheel moves maybe one millimeter on shaking. I thought it might be loose lug nuts, so I lowered the jack and tightened, but still same ~ 1 mm of play.

Raised the right front wheel, and the wheel doesn't move at all.

So, loose tie rod, really?

Hmm. Near enough to perfect for my money. I usually look at the steering wheel just to see if you're trying hard enough. The top & bottom balls (sometimes called kingpins) often take more force to betray their wear, but it sounds like they're pulling your leg.

So the steering wheel is supposed to turn too?

When does it become critical to fix the tie rods - when the wheel moves

1/8 of an inch? 1/4 inch?

You need enough force for the steering wheel to move - it's that bit of movement of the road wheel before the steering wheel moves in response that you're looking for. It's rubbery and imprecise even on a new car, but when you have done it on a handful of cars you should be able to pick one with a noticeable lag (or even a clunk) between road and steering wheels. You could do the same looking at the links underneath, but it's too hard to rock the wheel and see there at the same time. The only way to actually say the movement is (this much), is to put a dial gauge across each tie rod's ball joint. Then compare that to the specs because some small amount of play will be normal.

Ah, so to do this, the front of the car must be on jack stands, huh!

I did this with only the mechanical jack, supporting one wheel at a time. No way the other wheel could possibly move, to allow the steering wheel to move...!

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Doesnt matter. If both wheels are off the ground very little force is needed, you have to watch you're not just moving the whole lot. I don't bother to jack it up though jacking the wheel being checked is perhaps best*, I watch the steering wheel to see if I am using enough force and also if any play is this side not just transmitted to the other side so you wouldn't know which joint/s were worn.

*it's possible that a worn joint can tighten up when jacked because the angles change, specially if the wheel drops a long way.

I've never heard anyone refer to upper and lower ball joints as kingpins, but maybe they do where you are.

A kingpin or spindle bolt is one solid unit that holds the spindle to the axle.

In Australia, I'm pretty sure that's the commonly used description. It never made too much sense to me. I'm not sure what the spindle is... if it's not the axle?

The axle does not turn when you turn the wheels. The wheel, hub, and spindle form the assembly which can turn.

The spindle is the pivot which joins the axle to the hub/wheel. A kingpin is traditionally a single solid pivot pin or bolt going through the spindle and axle.

Balljoints form this pivot function in most modern cars. They perform a similar function to the kingpin, but we would not normally use the terms interchangeably.

Maybe you do in Oz, but we seppos separate the terms;>)

"What we have here is a failure to communicate" (cool hand luke:). I try and use descriptions the manual would, kingpins are not my preferred but many Aussies would recognise it. There's the axle on which hubs the wheel hubs mount (called a stub axle in non front wheel drive cars). Then there's the drive shaft (named so in my manual) connected through a universal joint, but I'm lost for which bit you are calling the spindle.

Drive shaft or halfshaft is good and understandable. I'll see if I can scan in a good clear drawing just for future reference. There are many ways to describe different parts in different places, I guess.

I've heard mechanics get testy here when someone talks about brake discs. They want us to call them rotors. Both are fair names.

And it didnt work... sent me to some sort of porny site.

Lets try this one.

There is no spindle on the Camry. You find spindles on a rear wheel drive vehicle. Also, the ends of the axle do turn with the wheels on the FWD - that's why you have the outer CV joint. ======== On my Toyota truck, the front wheels have spindles. The wheel bearings slide over them. They're like short, polished axles on which the wheels spin. The end is threaded. On the FWD Camry, the ends of the axles go through the wheels, and the wheels are fastened to them with the axle nut and retained with a cotter pin. There is no spindle. Don't think there's any kingpin either. I'm sure there's no upper control arm. All you've got is the lower control arm, ball joint, steering knuckle, and strut assembly. Sounds like this spindle and kingpin terminology is coming out of a book - not first hand experience with the Camry. By the way, there's no idler link either. The Camry has rack and pinion steering.

Nobody said there was...

Exactly

That was part of my point. A kingpin is not the same as a balljoint.

The idler arm was mentioned originally because the person asked if there was just one tie rod - of course there are two, since there is one idler on non-rack steering I thought that might be the source of the confusion. Kingpin terminology comes from steam tractors I think, the term is very common here in Australia. It's not a good description but many here would call them that. Just like spindle seems to be a common term elsewhere though not used here. Doesn't mean they... or I.... "got it out of a book".

Here we are in Sydney, OZ, where I've never heard anyone calling the stub axle (wheel bearing spindle etc) a "kingpin". Just my tuppence worth.....

Post-war here in Australia GM was a big player with their local manufacturing operation, and their product from 1948 on was called a "Holden", after a local manufacturer which GM took over. The first Holden here was based on a pre-war Chev, but was reworked by a local design team with American input.

For many years all Holdens had a kingpin front suspension, with upper and lower wishbones supporting a U-shaped knuckle. The wheel spindle and hub assembly pivoted on this kingpin which was supported by the knuckle. This arrangement is typical of I-beam front suspensions on trucks, and it performed about as well too. The only things missing were front leaf springs, Holdens did at least have coils there.

So we do still have many many Holdens getting around on their kingpins here. I had one, and it was a simple car to run and repair (which I did a lot).

To see the difference:

Geoff

Probably not - it's the upper and lower ball joints they refer to as kingpins. We all know they are not kingpins, but the terminology continued long after kingpins ceased to exist in most road vehicles. As a fellow aussie you must recognise it as typical of the way we use some old words to describe newer things here, even if you haven't heard it. It's not the terminology I use, but I know some others do. OTOH, I have never heard the word spindle used to describe any part of any front suspension or drive train, nor does my manual use it. Unlike kingpin, spindle doesn't suggest itself to me as any of the shafts or axles which are part of a front (or rear) wheel drive vehicle. But I still assume those who use it know what they're talking about.