i'm on coilovers and lowered as well and my alignment turned out almost all in spec, so it's not your fault at all

 

+ is in not out. Albatross. How old is your strings and shocks?

 

springs and shock are good. The gy at the performance shop said my rack seems to have an issue. Like the gears inside are "missing" or something making it feel disconnected with the road making it hard to set the toe.

I've never heard of that but the steering does have some play in it and at speed the car is solid. Its great in corners too unless I hit a bump. He says its definitely not bump steer and I agree. Its like something is disconnected but everything under the car is hooked up to spec.

So I suspect the rack. Could this be anything else?

 

only problem your having is a ****ty *** alignment tech. your rack isnt going to effect your alignment specs...if it is your rack why the hell cant he even get the camber right in the rear? i guess its the differential gears thats messing up your rear camber numbers :/

alignments aren't done with the tires turned rack is a excuse for sucking

 

A little backstory. Previous to the alignment when going into a corner that was a sweeping right hander it would do this but if it was a sweeping left hander it was fine.

The new tech got the alignment correct and the car drives perfect on smooth roads but wanders on uneven pavement. He recommended doing something about the rack and even offered to set the toe if I get it fixed in a couple weeks. I'm going to be checking out the inner tie rods this evening.

I suspect the reason this wasn't evident before was due to having tons of negative camber in the front. I'm not sure WHY that would be the case but thats the only thing that has changed.
I think the proper alignment equalized the problem so that now there isn't a greater load on one side minimizing some of the issue.

This is all theory, of course, I've never run into this issue so I'm still figuring out how to figure it out. the only thing I can think of that could cause this is the rack or inner tie rods.

 

ok so if your alignment is good now we are on a whole different topic . if your having weird problems while in motion check your steering rack bushings

 

those are also good as stated previously.

 

okay so here's what i've discovered.

THIS IS THE PROBLEM (i THINK)
With the car in the air and the key in the ignition if I move the wheels back and forth from the outside everything seems fine but if i take one wheel and sweep it back and forth quickly i can feel something and hear a clunk.

I think that is my problem. i just checked the inner tie rods and ball joints, those seem to be in good condition so I don't see how the problem could be there.

Also when doing this with the wheels disconnected from the toe rod ends the problem does not present itself, everything is butter smooth.

cliff's notes:
problem: clunk when sweeping the wheels back and forth rapidly (using momentum to simulate a bump) externally but no clunk when doing this slowly.

- inner tie rods look good, the only way i can get them to move is in a circular motion as they are supposed to and move easily.
- ball joints are good, they move without binding
- wheel bearings seem good (i disconnected the tie rod end from the rack and wiggled them really good, can't get em to budge and everything is butter smooth).
- rack bushings are good and the rack doesn't move at all externally when the clunk happens


Also with the the key off and steering wheel locked I can move the wheels side to side a little (but they move in unison), im not sure if this is proper.

 

Update:

so i zip tied my phone to the car and got a little video of the steering linkage just to make triple sure before I removed the entire power steering system for replacement/rebuilding.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

So that's that. The metal on metal clunk you're hearing is coming from the gearbox. Guess I'm the lucky guy with the rare issue, huh?

PS pump is off, fluid is drained, I'll instal the new rack tomorrow and rebuild the pump. Hopefully she drives as good as new (or better) after this

 

Fix here: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/8661631-post22.html it was a bad ball joint.