A question for the gurus:

Two weekends ago, I took a decent sized rock/boulder on my front right tire. I caught some air, came down and now my handlebars have about 1/2" of play (up and down, in-line with the axis of the steering shaft). I made it back to the truck w/o issue, and thought that maybe the play was just my handlebars being loosened from the hit. However, I've now noticed that the front end steering components are moving WITH the handlebars as I pulled them up and down.


When I got home, I took a closer his is what I found:

1) Tie rods look fine. no apparent damage.
2) The plate that the inner ends of the tie rods connect to look fine.
3) If I push up on the tie rods... or pull up on the handlebars, I get about a 1/2" of play. When I do that, on the bottom end, the plate raises up 1/2" off of the frame "socket".
4) Castle nut and cotter pin appear undamaged and unmoved.

Here's a couple pics.... lil blurry, but it's the best I could do.

Do you guys think that the lower steering bushing needs replaced, or does this sound more like the rubber washer below the bushing is bad?

--Brian

Picture #1
Picture #2

 

I had that rubber washer come out of my Explorer with normal use, I just tightned up the castle nut. It's been fine ever since.

 

Thanks.

I actually did an oil change and tune up on her this afternoon... snuck back underneath to take a closer look at the steering shaft to comapre what's there to the parts diagram. Directly above the castle nut, I have 2 bronze washers.... and the parts diagram shows a rubber spacer that is supposed to be in between those washers. Mine must have broken/ripped off during the boulder hit... and that space where rubber washer is supposed to be is the reason for the play.

Good news is that it should be a 15 minute fix. Bad news is that no one has the rubber spacer locally... so going to have to order it on-line.

--Brian