4 hours of installing tie rod

[Dongoesby]

I'm in a learning process of hobbying in working on my own car (S14). After numberous errors and trails for removing the old stock tie rods and installing the new SPL tie rods, I spent another 6 hour on adjusting the toe.

There are couple interesting, yet weird, problems come up. First of all, the right wheel is more "toe in" than the left wheel when the left and the right tie rods are preset to the same length (approx 13-1/4", stock length). The result in a test drive is a lot of front tire roar when turning (even in a slight turn), and a lot of free play on the streering wheel. The problem turned a lot better by solely shortening the right tie rod length by 1/8". It killed the front tire roar and the free play of the steering wheel. However, the car leans toward the left now.

Second, the SPL tie rods w/ z33 inner provide a major increase in steering agle (steering ratio). While the steering ratio only change when changing the privot point, the length of the tie rods can only change toe; however, my right wheel seem to get more steering angle than the left. The right wheel is noticebly closer to the tension rod and inner wall when fully turned (observed while the car is lifted up). It even rubs the tension rod in the beginning when the right tie rods were set up 1/4" longer (more toe-in).

Third, the car makes a sound when I turned the wheel to limit and the engine sounded stalling at that same time.

1) Can anybody tell me what is wrong before going to the shop? Base on the problem above, is something wrong with my car?

2) I have done all the measurement by eyeball. I turned the knuckle a lot when the car is turned off, is the steering porportion messed up?

3) I tried to match the steering wheel by turning the knuckle to the limt (ie full )right, then turn on the engine on, then turn the steering wheel full right. Is this able to synchronize the steering with the wheel to the steering wheel?

4) Theoretically, suppose both the left and right tie rods be the same length?

Possible solution I can think of: I have installed a spacer (1/4" thick) to the inner tie rod, but I did not remove the locking plate. Would that be the problem of causing different steering angle for left and right wheels?

[LayNLow240]

You are supposed to remove the locking plate when installing spacers. But all of your problems sound like the same ones i had. Just go get it aligned.

[rwdisgoo]

yea get it aligned

[drift24Osx]

I just finished installing the same set up. I have an S14 with the Z33 Tein inner tie rods and the SPL v5 outer tie rods. I installed them with the with the spacer on the inner tie rod. When I took it for a test drive it was straight but the bump steer was pretty bad. Both wheels had a little toe in.

When I drive and turn, the steering wheel does not want to come back to center, I have to manually put it back. Is this due to the alignment or do I have other problems?

Also what spacers are you running on the outer tie rods? I used the both regular and the misalignment spacer on each side. Let me know how yours goes.

[youngun21a]

I had the same problem with my s13..I install the wicked tuninig inner and outer tie rods..and the way i fix it with out taking it to have it align was I raise the fron of the car..set the steering wheel in the middle where i know is straight then i just look at the tires and where they where pointing and adjust and done.. same myself 150 bux...

[drift24Osx]

I have now fixed my problem. I ended up taking it to be aligned but the shop ended up not fixing it. They gave me the read out and said my car was pretty bad I thought that was pretty funny. What the paper showed was that may toe was -.90 on the left and -.92 on the right. So i jacked up my car and adjusted the tie rods and put them closer to the car which straightened it out. I drove the car and all my problems went away. Im still going to get it aligned but it is straight!