'93 Camry wagon with odd steering play

[93Cramry]

Howdy Toyota gurus -

I have a fun one for you. When my transmission blew up I had my 1993 DX camry wagon (5sfe, A105e trans???) towed via tow truck and then flat bed. Following the tranny swap I test drove the car and found the steering wheel greatly misaligned. It was new years eve and I was in a hurry to return to Colorado. Not thinking very clearly I presumed the techs disconnected tie rods or something to do the tranny swap, and that a proper alignment would not be included with this deal. Oh well. I get on the highway and notice that it's not just a steering wheel misalignment but a strange, sticky play.

Here's what it's like. If I turn reasonably hard left and then carefully return to driving forward the steering wheel will be straight. I can turn very lightly right and brake very lightly and the wheel remains straight.

Once I hit a bump or turn reasonably hard right and then return to forward, the wheel is misaligned. When driving on a curvy road every time I go from hard left to hard right there is a certain amount of steering force that can be handled before the play "slips" and I have to reindex the steering. This makes driving in the mountains pretty poopy. The car wanders quite a bit on straight roads too. Very annoying.

I hope this is getting clearer - kind of hard to describe... It's as if there is a "breakaway force" to the play - it doesn't show up until a certain amount of turning is done - OR I hit a light bump such as the asphalt ruts you find at a traffic stop.

I have driven it this way (and should not have) for thousands of miles and the behavior has not changed one bit. It is not "wearing" at all.

I have climbed underneath and had a buddy go from left to right on the wheel and I cannot detect any play in the tie-rods (either end) or ball joints (BTW I had previously replaced the ball joints with good MOOG units - they seem to be perfect still). Maybe this isn't enough force to cause the slip though? I have no good way of knowing!

So to conclude, there is a very consistent stick-slip behavior in the steering. It has not gotten worse in many thousands of miles. It does not APPEAR to be tie rods or ball joints.

I really need to figure this out and repair it! Ideas?

I have heard suggestions that this sort of thing is more likely to be the universal joint in the steering shaft than the rack - although I have no idea how to check - everything seems covered!

Does anybody have a suggestion as to what this problem could be?

HELP!!
Thanks in advance...
-Dan

[Jimnist]

Just making sure, you did get an alignment, right?

For the universal joint, it's right near the firewall. Spray it with lube and see if that helps. To make sure for certain, you can take it off and check if it's seized.

[davemac2]

It sounds like when they removed the trans, they lossened or removed the steering rack, and now it is still very loose. (ie. they never tightened up the rack!). This sounds pretty dangerous. Have it inspected on a lift and tell them to tighten up the rack if it's loose.

dave mc

[93Cramry]

Hey thank you people for the replies. I'm sorry my original post lacked a few details (it was like 2 am or something stupid...).

-Yeah I took it to an alignment shop right away and they tried to align the thing and ended up giving up. They said they could find no play anywhere.

-It's pointless but I'll explain the sequence of my logic: Before I drove the thing a bunch (and studied the behavior) I just assumed the misalignment came from removing the trans. Then I thought (just a bit... duh) - wait a sec, I have removed this engine and trans before - and you don't have to disconnect any tie rods (you can, but not necessary), rack, or anything else - why is this happening? I then realized something must have gotten tweaked WHEN IT WAS BEING TOWED / FLAT-BEDDED. ACk, that's bad. And of course I have no recourse. Most likely sub-conclusion - tranny shop didn't do this damage. It happened when being towed.

Thanks for the idea about the rack itself being loose to the mounts! I will look into this but here's why I doubt it - the condition has remained exactly the same for many months and miles. If it were a loose bolted-interface the constant sliding back and forth would no doubt wear the contacting surfaces, continuously lowering that "break away steering torque" I was talking about - eventually leading to that play being very loose and without restriction. I will look at it tho!

So that makes me think the damage was due to an massive overload during towing (????) - like the wheels being torqued very hard to the left or right - the steering lock might have been on and thus that very high torque would transmit up the column and be resisted by the lock. Everything downstream from the lock would see torques and forces possibly higher than they are in even a collision (!!!! since the steering is unlocked during a collision). The steering lock is somewhere in the column (haven't looked at a diagram) - thus the damage would be downstream from there - like the steering shaft U-joint! But what's so odd is that there really is this "breakway" thing. It transmits some steering torque before it smoothly slips to the other limit (the slack gets taken out, steering wheel changes position, front wheels maintain their track). That just doesn't jive with my mental picture of a damaged u-joint.

It certainly seems more like a sliding steering rack such as Davemac2 suggests...

So here are a few follow up questions on this mystery:
-(I'll ask the tranny shop) Would they typically loosen the steering rack?
-(to y'all!!!!) Does this malfunction sound like it could be INSIDE the steering rack?
-(to y'all!!!!) Does this malfunction sound like it could be the steering rack u-joint?
-(to y'all!!!!) Are there any other devices in the steering column that could allow this slip to occur? I know they have the "collision absorbtion / crunching" structures in the column. Any slip fits or other frictional interfaces that could slip?
-(to y'all!!!!) I need to get a steering system diagram - probably from toyota. Do you know of any online sources for those prints???

Thansk a bazillion!
-D