Steering rack squeak?

I have a squeak/creeking noise comming from the driver side of my steering rack. Is there a way to grease it or spray it with some wd40? I thought it was the tierode in so I took it off to change it and turned the wheel with the tierode out of the spindle and it still made the creak/squeak noise. If I can't grease or wd40 it how can I fix it?


Tim

Never heard of that. Hopefully someone here has experienced that. The rack looks like a sealed unit with no grease zerks.

i would bet its a ball joint or the a-arms

the sterring rack is sealed

New one to me too. You can take the big center-nut off, it's a tension adjustment, and get a little grease in there. The best way, if it is truely the rack ,is to remove it and take it apart and grease it. I've had one apart and there was pleanty of grease in it.

I did not see a zerks. I had the tierode out of the spindle and when you turn the wheel it still squeaked and creaked. I was holding the rode the tierode is on that goes to the steering rack and when it would squeak you could fill the rod vibrate in your hand. I had never read of this problem before so I thought someone might know something on here.

Tim

my money is on the ball joints

I'm with bush

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/plw05-037.html

use one of these to put grease in the ball joint.

tim wrote:

I did not see a zerks. I had the tierode out of the spindle and when you turn the wheel it still squeaked and creaked. I was holding the rode the tierode is on that goes to the steering rack and when it would squeak you could fill the rod vibrate in your hand. I had never read of this problem before so I thought someone might know something on here.

Tim

You are saying it is in the rack right? It is squeaking with the tie-rod removed and the wheel not turning right? I have never had a rack apart but I believe I would take Ridepates advice and pull it apart to be safe if it is truly coming from the inside of the rack. I know a car has an inner and outer tie-rod if it has an inner tie-rod it could be dry and causing a squeak.

mud-and-guts wrote:

tim wrote:

I did not see a zerks. I had the tierode out of the spindle and when you turn the wheel it still squeaked and creaked. I was holding the rode the tierode is on that goes to the steering rack and when it would squeak you could fill the rod vibrate in your hand. I had never read of this problem before so I thought someone might know something on here.

Tim

You are saying it is in the rack right? It is squeaking with the tie-rod removed and the wheel not turning right? I have never had a rack apart but I believe I would take Ridepates advice and pull it apart to be safe if it is truly coming from the inside of the rack. I know a car has an inner and outer tie-rod if it has an inner tie-rod it could be dry and causing a squeak.

I have one bush I will try it on the balljoints.

Mud-and-guts I think it is in the rack. It is squeaking with the tie-rode removed and the wheel not turning. I am going to try Bushs idea and see if it works.

once you add the grease drive it a little and turn the wheels a lot to spread the grease around.

the ball joints on my rhino started squeaking before and the grease stopped it but its only a temporary fix because the joints are already damaged and will get play in them. hope it works for you

If it is the ball joint that does work I use to do it on my older bikes but I got away from it because once you poke a hole in the boot it yields somewhere for water to enter the joint, but turn the wheel and tire assemble side to side with the tie-rod disconnected does it squeak?

The rod you are talking about that the tie-rod is attached to, move it up down and around if it squeaks with out the steering wheel moving it sounds like the inner tie-rod if that is the case you may be able to pull the black boot on that side and grease the inner tie-rod. I looked on Yamaha's parts manual and they do not give a part number for the 05 inner tie-rod(they call what we are calling tie-rods universal joints).

I greased them now I just have to drive it around. I am going to wait untill my little girl gets out of school so she can go with me. I plane on replaceing all 4 of the ball joints when I do the wheel bearings again. I am going to Brimstone Oct 31, but I don't have time to change them before I go. All of them feel tight they are not loose at all. So I think they will be ok on a few more rides. The squeak just drives me crazy guess I can crank the tunes up and ride on.


Tim