86 civic tie rod ends- help needed

Hi, Recently replaced the tie rod ends in my 86 civic with new ones.
Alignment is good (car tracks good, and i used some spray paint to mark
the tie rods before removing the old ones to get the new tie rod ends
back to the same location on the tie rods). problem that i'm having is
that when i hit a bump or a slick man-hole cover, the car and steering
wheel jerk to the right or left sharply. never did this before that I
noticed. Tire pressure checked OK at 28 PSI.

1) Wonder if the tie rod end is loose or wiggling when ever I hit a
bump in the road causing the jerky steering and wiggling wheel. I
used a tie rod separator (long bar with u-shaped end) to remove the old
tie rod. It popped out. Presume just a compression fit, and torquing
the bolt will press the new tie rod end into the shackle properly.

2) I wonder if i did not torque the tie-rod ends to the wheel properly.
I tightened the bolt and used a cotter pin, but can re-torque if
someone can give me the torque value. The tie-rod ends were
pre-greased, with a "cup" oil seal betweent the top of the tie rod and
bottom of the wheel shackle. Maybe that oil seal is in the way?

What else might cause this wiggly handling? I note some wheel/tire
squeal too when cornering.
Checked tire pressure, all looks good at 28PSI front and rear.

K7JOE DeleteThis @yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Hi, Recently replaced the tie rod ends in my 86 civic with new ones.
> Alignment is good (car tracks good, and i used some spray paint to mark
> the tie rods before removing the old ones to get the new tie rod ends
> back to the same location on the tie rods). problem that i'm having is
> that when i hit a bump or a slick man-hole cover, the car and steering
> wheel jerk to the right or left sharply. never did this before that I
> noticed. Tire pressure checked OK at 28 PSI.
>
> 1) Wonder if the tie rod end is loose or wiggling when ever I hit a
> bump in the road causing the jerky steering and wiggling wheel. I
> used a tie rod separator (long bar with u-shaped end) to remove the old
> tie rod. It popped out. Presume just a compression fit, and torquing
> the bolt will press the new tie rod end into the shackle properly.
>
> 2) I wonder if i did not torque the tie-rod ends to the wheel properly.
> I tightened the bolt and used a cotter pin, but can re-torque if
> someone can give me the torque value. The tie-rod ends were
> pre-greased, with a "cup" oil seal betweent the top of the tie rod and
> bottom of the wheel shackle. Maybe that oil seal is in the way?
>
> What else might cause this wiggly handling? I note some wheel/tire
> squeal too when cornering.
> Checked tire pressure, all looks good at 28PSI front and rear.

Assuming all the basics are OK then your alignment is probably off. Get it
inspected. Some shops have a computerized alignment tester which enables
them to check the basic toe settings by just driving the car over it. It
will indicate the sideslip in ft/mile. Sideslip is the number of feet that
your tire is effectively dragging sideways for each mile driven.

Eric