Steering rack question

I had another post last night about me running into a sewer drain. Made a very loud pop noise and steering is off center now. I checked this morning and there’s no bent tie rods or any damage I see or find. There was ice still frozen on the joint between inner/outer rod.

My question is, can the steering rack shift internally with enough force?

 

Jack up your truck and try to shake the tire. Push in towards the engine bay on one side and pull back towards you on the other side. Go back and forth like that a few times to see if there is any play in your tie rods or rack. Do this on the top and bottom of the wheel to check for play in your ball joints. If you can't find any movement, you probably just threw your alignment out

 

The steering rack can definitely shift with enough force

 

Did you inspect the alignment cams? More than likely, the cam brackets flattened out and allowed the cam to slide, physically changing the toe and that makes the steering wheel off center.

Like this. You can see how the tab is flattened on the right:

 

Yes, and this is likely what happened. They are adjustable and can usually compensate for small issues without replacement. Start with an alignment and go from there.

Inner tie rods are hard to find if they are bent, the easiest way I can tell is during the actual adjustment with the wrench on it.

 

I was kinda hoping the inner was bent than a damaged rack, but I was surprised looking under there how thick the inner rods are. I can see why some other damage would occur before these inner rods bent. I’ll check out those alignment cams and check for play.

With this suspension setup, don’t you have to put a jack under the lower control arm to check for ball joint play? Been a long time since I used to be a car mechanic.

 

Not at the truck now, but I recall the rack being rubber mounted on 3rd gen. Think it is likely just shifted the whole rack.

 

i just went through something a bit similar. it took literally 6 weeks, 4 shops, 10 alignments (literally), one tow, and i'm not sure how many hours of diagnostic effort. at the beginning i hit a small bump, heard metal on metal, and it went way out of alignment at that moment. then i heard the metal on metal sound a couple more times and the alignment got worse each time until i had to have it towed, it was undriveable.

my story is actually complicated and has only been fully diagnosed in retrospect because numerous factors lead to the outcome, but end of the day the main failure was the driver's side rear LCA cam bolt. apparently it had been abused and stripped by an inexperienced tech who overtorqued it or something. we had to replace that bolt and the back plate for it, then it would hold an alignment under load. he had to disconnect most stuff to mobilize the LCA and find out it wasn't being held in place by that bolt, and the metal sound was the LCA shifting at the chassis where the bolt is. depending on how it was loaded the LCA would shift from one side to another and get stuck there until weight shifted it to the other side. the truck would align on the rack but unalign itself on the road, back and forth. so hard to diagnose.

 

Hope the rack isn't damaged. Dealers want to pull the engine to access it. But there is an easier way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgRAwP0WEeE

 

Nope, that's for torsion bar set ups

 

Holy cow, didn’t realize they would want that much to do that. I used to be a mechanic years ago. I wouldn’t mind doing it myself, just the alignment part I can’t do.

 

it wasnt the easiest. the 3rd gens oil filter thing adds an additional part to take off. also, make sure you remove both sets of coilovers and sway bar, and ITR/OTRs. it will come most freely out of the driver side, but will first need to be slid back through the passenger side to make clearance, then angled/pulled completely out through the driver side.

yes I did this with him the first time, before he had access to the lift. we (along with @Kappes03) did it in his garage on the floor and it was a little more intricate than a 2nd gen job. definitely do-able if you can take apart your own suspension you can physically handle this job.