Squeak/Groan from steering system

2000 taco 4x4 downy adjustable lift with all pro upper a arms uniball long travel and 33" tires.

I recently went to the dunes and mashed it up pretty hard. I didn't notice anything break at any point, though.

The problem: When the steering gets about halfway through one direction, it begins to squeak/groan. It only happens when the steering wheel is turning, but will happen if the car is moving or not. Car still operates normally and handles fine.

I took a look underneath and noticed that the steering rack torques/rotates a little around its long axis when the steering wheel moves. I tried re-torquing all the associated bolts, but this did not help.

I have also noticed a little gash in the metal that houses the upper end of the coil spring/shock assembly. (not sure what to call this cause some of these parts are not stock). It appears that this gash could be in the path of travel of some of the suspension components under extreme conditions. I am not sure, however, when this gash appeared. Also, its not a huge gash, it would not have taken a lot of force to cause.

Any ideas?

 

whoops, sorry for posting this twice

 

First of all, you need new steering rack bushings. Look at Wheelers offroad for those.

As for the gash, are you talking about the coil bucket, the part that houses the upper part of the coil and is welded to the frame? If so you were definitely mashing on it hard!

 

got any pics of the gash? id like to see

 

x2

 

Here is a photo, taken at night =D

"Gash" might be an overstatement, but it IS in metal.

Do you think this could be related to the steering issue I mention?

 

Well it looks like you bent up the coil bucket pretty good. You might want to look into some coil bucket gussets. I don't know much about them but I know some of the long travel guys on here could help you out in that department. As for the groan, I really have no clue. It wouldn't surprise me if you bent some other stuff as well. Did you jump the truck at all?

edit: actually, it looks like its just been ground off in that spot in the pic. Is the metal ripped?

 

my truck had an annoying whine to it dont know if thats your problem exactly but the rack and pinion was gashed open and had to be replace... 900 bones later it was fixed

 

total chaos as well as solo motorsports makes them

http://solomotorsports.com/images/products/yotadblshr/index.html

im gonna fab some up at school. we got a plasma cutter and free materials

 

I don't think the coil buckets are bent or even ground down, they look straight and they have a machined metal lip/bead... Maybe they were installed as part of the Downy adjustable lift? The previous owner of the truck installed the lift...

 

when i had my mid travel susp the top of the uni ball made contact with the coil bucket and left a similar cut into the metal like you have there... that could be the case for you too.

maybe not to top of the uni ball (it doesn't look like it from the pic) but some part of the UCA made contact w/ the coil bucekt

 

After this contact, did you notice any problems?