Steering play

(2003 Tacoma 2 wheel drive)

My 2003 has developed some play in the steering over the last six months,a friend and I put it on a rack today and checked tie rod ends,upper -lower bushings and general front end. Everything looked and felt tight. I then checked the upper and lower u joints and "rag joint" on the steering column.

There is something loose in this area but we can't seem to pinpoint it. We where going to order all the parts down to the rack and pinion but the price kind of suprised us ($ 300.00). Has anyone else had this problem with their Tacoma? I'm kind of suprised that we where unable to pinpoint this loose or broken part????

Thanks, Kevin

 

EDIT, I see the OP is 2wd. The following applies to 4wd and PreRunners. The 5 lug 2wd may or may not be similar.

Look into this, it's fairly common.
Read the beginning for trouble shooting technique,then go to post #42 and the whole thing will start to look much less of a pain in the ass. You can have the column on your bench in 20 minutes.

If you have the non tilt column it is a bit more of a challenge. There is a thread around on the non tilters, from a couple of months ago.


Found it, go down to post #7. http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/285190-something-steering-wheel-rattles.html