It is not easy to see from the photo below, but on my 95' Sportsman, where the tie rods connect to the steering column, the boots on the connectors seems to have "exploded" on both the left and right tie rods. That dark "goo" between the two boots is what appears to be the melted remnants of the back side of the boots.

It is "sticky" to the touch, like it is melted (even though it is completely cool), and the back side (the side you can't see because I couldn't get my camera in there) is "blown out" or melted.

I discovered this because I was bouncing the ATV up and down by pushing the plow blade with my foot and I heard a "squeek, squeek". The sound, I discovered, was coming from the tie rod end (the other end) rubbing against the tire (see the second photo).

If you look at the left end of the highlighted area, you can just see the end of the tie rod. The tie rod end is touching the tire, making a very slight gouge in the tire. I assume that will eventually ruin the tire, which I don't want.

Question one...
Does anyone have any idea what would cause the boot on the tie rod ends to melt or "pop"?

Question two...
Since the tie rod is touching the tire, does that require some kind of alignment or something, or would replacing the "blown" boots on the other end of the tie rods bring it back away from the tire?

 

was it properly aligned for this happened

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: JAB722c

was it properly aligned for this happened</end quote></div>

I can't be sure, but from the looks of the wear on the side of the tire, I'd say it just recently started touching the tire, so if I had to guess, I'd say it was not touching the tire until the boot went all melty on me.

 

Could the boot have gotton so hot that it started to melt? It looks real close to your exaust manifold. any overheating latly?
Replacing the boot should help IMO, but I'm not sure if it will be enough. You should check the alignment too![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: rancher55

Could the boot have gotton so hot that it started to melt? It looks real close to your exaust manifold. any overheating latly?

Replacing the boot should help IMO, but I'm not sure if it will be enough. You should check the alignment too![img][/img]</end quote></div>

Thanks for the reply...

I did consider the possibility that the exhaust may have melted it. When it is running, there is smoke coming from that area, so I know there is some level of exhaust leakage under there. That could be it. I'm going to look into that today.

Does anyone have any advice for how to get things aligned properly once I replace the tie rod ends? I think there is something in the manual about using a string or something to get the front wheels aligned properly. Is that really the way to do it? Or have owners come up with a better method?

I just got this thing a short time ago, and I've never had an ATV before, so I'm learning as I go. Any advice or speculation is appreciated.

 

I found another great use for a winch... I hooked it to a beam in the ceiling of my basement and lifted the ATV up so I could get a better view of the problem (and better pictures, below).

What can I adjust to get the strut arm back away from the tire? It seems like whatever I do, I'm just turning the wheel....????

Looking at the pictures below, can anyone point out what I would do to adjust the strut or tie rod so that it is not touching the tire?

I don't know anything about adjusting struts and such... so anyone that has a clue, I'm eager to get any advice whatsoever!

Here is a good view of the tie rod rubbing the tire:


Here is a picture of the boot all blown out at the steering column:


Here is a good view of the entire Strut and A-Frame assembly:

 

The first thing you should do is replace both of those boots! Ilooked up the PN and it looks to be 5410540. Then try alignment.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Thanks Rancher. Agreed, and thanks for the part number.

If anyone comes to this thread as a result of a search or whatever and has a problem related to the tie rod touching the tire, there is some very helpful information in this thread related to the tie rod end touching the tire, and ways to solve it. Based on what I saw in that thread, I wound up flipping the tie rod end, which gave me the clearance I needed. I had to re-adjust the toe afterwards, but otherwise it was pretty easy and seems to work fine now... no tire rubbing.