ball joint break-in?

[fretburnr]

Do new ball joints have a break-in time? I'm just curious, as I just installed new control arms, balljoints, and THR eyeball arms last night, and got the car aligned this morning. The car has also had a reman steering rack and new tie rods and ends in the last few weeks, with an alignment then as well.

I'm finding the steering is rather heavy throughout its travel, with significant effort required near center. The alignment set toe at .15 degrees toe in on each side (normal factory spec) with neg camber and pos caster a bit higher than spec (car is quite low, with THR arms adding caster.); the specs are right where they ought to be as far as I know.

I don't remember the steering being this heavy last time I changed control arms/joints etc. The power assist seems to be working properly, and that pump was new/reman as of 7-8mos ago.

[Axxe]

THR eyeball arms. Increased caster = heavy off center.

[fretburnr]

Of course, and I should have been more clear... it's not just heavy moving off-center (which i would expect and like) but it's also heavy going back to center after a turn. If i'm not mistaken, increased caster will make it want to pull straight again. My return-to-center is not what it should be; it will return somewhat to either 10:00 or 2:00 on the wheel, but requires moderate effort to bring it back to dead-on.

[Axxe]

Steering rack then. I think it has to "break in" before it moves properly.

[fretburnr]

I would think so - but the steering rack has had two weeks use on it and was acting relatively normal before doing the arms last night.

I'll check again for binding but i went over it thoroughly before buttoning everything up. Maybe I missed a washer somewhere.

[BrandC]

Did you bleed the power steering system?

[fretburnr]

yes, but i suppose it's worth a retry. I didn't change anything power-steering related during the arm swap, since it was acting fine before.

[Mike325]

Start the car and take off the PS res cover and carfully look inside. You should not see any bubbles or foam. If there is, you have a leak somewhere. did you use ATF or power steering fluid?

[fretburnr]

On my lunch break i just followed the simple procedure for bleeding PS system, and no changes. (turn lock to lock, shut off and check level, turn on and turn to full lock, shut off for 15min, check level)

I just had another thought - the only other things up front that I'd change are the upper strut mounts; they are about 2.5 yr old, but had no dust caps for a while.

I doubt that they'd fail/get stiff right as I replaced the control arms, but I'll try greasing them tonight to see if it makes a difference.

[fretburnr]

Mike, just saw your reply. When I replaced the rack etc a few weeks ago, i used the recommended d3 ATF, and bled properly. No bubbles or foam happening at all right now. The PS and front end were working fine the last 2 weeks, save for the worn balljoints i just replaced last night.

[fretburnr]

Update: It seems the heaviness has lightened up a bit, and the nice solid centered feel is showing its face again.. however, now the "dead zone" has narrowed to between say 11 and 1 o'clock, and is even more pronounced. There's now an audible and tangible "click" when i reach the edges of that dead zone, as if something was binding has now been released as I move past it.

I'm lost. I just got some grease for the strut bearings tonight, so I will do that tomorrow am and see how it goes.

Any other ideas would be great, as I've just about run out.

[whiltebeitel]

Break a tooth off of a gear?

/\
random thought.

[fretburnr]

which gear? the wheels still move precisely in that range, so there's no disconnect (broken gear tooth or spline etc); the steering just binds up there, and there's a click noise.

I lubed the strut mounts with moly-fort grease yesterday during an oil change. The steering is barely any different, maybe a bit lighter throughout its range. Out of that "dead zone" the steering feels great.

edit: maybe this needs to move to steering with a new title; it doesn't look likely to be the balljoints anymore.

[dark89e30]

1. get buddy
2. jack the front of car up on stands
3. crawl under car with large screwdriver
4. have buddy turn wheel (try with engine running as well as not)
5. put end of screwdriver up to ear and other end up to various parts
of suspension and steering until you find where the noise is coming from.
also, make sure you don't have the steering binding on anything.
if it doesn't make the noise, you can try it on the ground with load.