Steering questions

My 09 feels loose going straight down the road. When parked I can move the wheel side to side about 3 inches. Driving it wiggles side to side while going straight.

I just had my steering rack replaced but didn’t get an alignment, I foolishly thought that would be part f the work and toyota didn’t say anything or ask if I wanted one.

I can reach into the engine compartment and shake the steering knuckle (whatever the connector between wheel and rack is called) easily and cause it to clunk. It doesn’t look like the rack is moving and the rest of the steering components seem in good shape.

so, ideas? I’m going to start with getting it aligned.

 

Without starting the truck, have someone wiggle the steering wheel left to right and put you hands on all parts of the steering, starting with the steering shaft. That might tell you something.

 

Intermediate shaft

 

Pretty sure after looking everything over that my upper ball joints are bad, noticeable movement in them and that would make sense why my steering feels loose.

 

That much play in the steering wheel is probably the intermediate shaft. Thats a lot of play and should be switched out

 

I'm going to take it in so I'll ask the shop to look at both but my upper ball joints are making a pretty obvious clunk and when I had a helper move the tire I could feel the ball joint moving. I was looking over my records and as far as I can tell those uppers are original to the truck (200,230 miles on it right now). I had the frame replaced in 2018 with about 130,000 miles on it so the lower ball joints are at about 70,000. The dealer who replaced the steering rack didn't look at anything else at all, didn't even do an alignment after replacing the rack. Pretty disappointed in them.

 

Latest update and why dealers are awful, when they replaced my steering rack they didn't bother tightening the bolt connecting the rack with the steering shaft. The shop that was going to do the ball joints and alignment said I'm lucky I didn't crash because it was just barely in contact with the steering rack. Now waiting to hear back from toyota about how they're going to fix this.