I installed a whole new steering rack with new outer tie rods on my 88 Camry 3SFE. Works fine. However, I was hoping that I could get by without throwing the alignment off by setting the number of exposed threads on the tie rods the same. This didn't work at all. With Steering wheel/rack and left wheel centered, the RH wheel was pointing outward about 20 deg. or so! I just put a metal rule across the wheel with tire removed, and saw where both wheels were aligned with the inner lower lip of the wheel- well to get a rough idea. So using this method I added a lot of exposed threads so that the space between the tip of metal rule and the inner lower wheel- well lip was the same on both sides of car. This was not close enough, as when I drove it, it ws pulling to the right quite a bit. ( Before the rack replacement the car tracked straight as an arrow) It seems that this would indicate that the RH wheel is still pointing towards a right turn. So I added another turn/thread to move the front of the RH wheel left a bit more....but it still pulls to the right, can't really tell any improvement. I know I really need to have it aligned professionally, but there isn't money right now. So I am hoping there is some make-do procedure I can improvise to get it close enough that I won't wear out the tire in 500 miles. Ideas?
- posted
17 years ago