Out ridin today and my quad took a nasty hit on it's side, when i flipped it back over and looked at it from the front, my left tire was bent outwards compared to my right tire which is straight as an arrow. I didn't really notice any bend in the control arms. Would a bend in the control arm (upper or lower) cause this or maybe the steering knuckle assembly? I heard something crack when it hit but I thought it was my pastics.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like it might be a tie-rod or bent a-arm.

What kinda quad?

 

Will the tire flop by hand, or is it still controlled by the handlebars. Most likely you bent a tie rod, or the end bust off the knuckle. Check the tie rods, they should be pretty straight the whole length...my guess is one of them is very badly bent, or disconnected.
If you arent sure which is the tie rod, have someone slowly turn the handlebars left and right while you look under the front...the link from the steering stem to the wheel knuckle is the tie rod.

 

02 raptor 660


Ok cool, I'll check out the tie rod, I hope nothing is bent I don;t feel like dropping a few hundred for a new arm.

The wheel does turn with the handlebars, and this happened in the middle of the woods and I was able to ride back to my truck.

 

98% sure its your tie rod. You can get 2 new ones fairly cheap. Or even used on ebay, extremely cheap.

 

100% sure it's a bent tierod or your rim is super focked

 

It's definatly not my rim so must be the tie rod, is a tie rod a pain in the *** to replace or does it swap pretty easily?

 

Its a threaded stick, how hard could it be! lol.

 

Any special tool needed or will a regular wrench work? Thanks

 

A couple of open end wrenches should do it. Maybe even a cresent wrench will work.
One end of the tie rod, has right hand threads, and the other has left hand threads. It works like a turnbuckle.
After you replace it, you will need to do the toe adjustment, to get the front tires pointed in the right relationship. No biggie, a couple of staight edges or yardsticks will work, or even a couple of very straight 2x4 will do.