What's Wrong with my car?! ('88 ix)

[mrbobian]

This morning I decided to dig into my new '88 ix and hunt down the ABS problem. This was an easy find as my passenger side sensor was all together gone... nice.

However, I have bigger problems. When I took off the drivers side wheel I noticed some "slop..." I found that if you grab the break caliper and the oppotsite side the of the rotor and act as tho you are trying to turn the steering wheel (which would not happen because I had the steering wheel locked) the shaft that goes to the T-case (I don't know what this is called?) clunks back and fourth. Not just a little, but I have nearly a cm of play there... The rubber boots on the shaft seem to be in great condition though. Also, most of the slop seems to come from the T-case connection end. I hope I described this well enough. Not exactly sure what do do next... Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Mike B.

Bump...?

[mrbobian]

Bump

[thejlevie]

That sounds like worn tie rods or bearing.

[bimmernaught]

what you're describing sounds like the axle and the front diff. If your bearing and balljoints and control arm bushing are good it should be rock solid. If one of your balljoints is bad you should be able to look at the back of the strut and wiggle it - you'll see some movement at the joint where the strut meets the control arm.
If its a bad bearing, it might be solid there, but if you remove the caliper you can wiggle the rotor and your shaft will move a tiny bit too. This wiggle is in relation to the strut! If you can move the rotor and the strut stays put, you likely have a bad bearing
If your control arm bushing(CAB) is bad, you will be able to see if flex at the back of the control arm and it would look a little rotten. With normal human strength a good CAB should not flex much.
A bad tierod end will show symptoms that look like you have slop in your rack, you can turn the whole strut a little, but the tierod doesn't move.

You're much less likely to have a bad shaft than a bad balljoint. You CAN replace just a balljoint($50), don't listen to anyone that says you need to replace the entire arm($250). A shop will likely have to press a new joint in for you anyways so if you are not too experienced and don't have the resources, you might as well take it there. But buy your parts online or from napa, etc.

[mrbobian]

I will look at all of these. Thanks a ton for the info. Thats a start that will help for sure.

[bimmernaught]

good luck. start with the joint though:
unlock steering, pop hood, have someone exercise the slop in the wheel while you look at the joint and tierods.