Earlier I was hit in the front passenger side and I lost steering there. I'm not exactly sure what I need to replace or what the parts are all called, but I need to try to do it soon as this is my only vehicle. Hopefully these pictures will help.


and

 

You broke you steering knuckle and bent the inner tie rod end. You will probably need an outer tie rod end as well. You will need a new wheel bearing because you are not likely to get the old one out of the steering knuckle without damage.

You may also find hidden damage in the CV joint and the hub assembly, but you won't know until things are disassembled. You also need to check the wheel and tire for damage as well as the brake rotor and maybe the caliper and caliper bracket. I see the backing plate for the brakes is missing but that wasn't from this.

 

100% in agreement with Keith. You did a number on that car.

 

I wasn't hit very hard considering. I'm wondering if it already had a crack in it that just want noticeable before. I don't know. Does anyone know what kind of to list I will need for this? Any special tools?

 

I gave you a list above. If you can still hold the rotor with the brake, then you can get the axle nut off with a breaker bar and an axle socket. You will need to buy this socket but WalMart may still have the Stanley large socket set. Get the metric set, the whole set costs about the same as a single axle socket costs, but the sockets in the set are not as heavy duty, but I have yet to break one and I use them quite frequently.

If you get both the inner and outer tie rod ends, you won't need to get a small pitman arm puller. A small pitman arm puller made by oem tools and sold at AutoZone is ideal for pulling ball joints and tie rod ends on any Japanese car and on many small domestic vehicles, but like I said, you won't need one if you replace both ends.

You will also need a steering rack boot (aka bellows) because if they aren't torn up yet, you probably will tear them up getting the inner tie rod out. You only need wrenches for this but you will need a small piece of rubber sheeting, like a bicycle tire tube, to protect the teeth on the rack gear. You turn the rack gear all the way to the left to get the rack to stick out the right side all the way, then remove the boot, protect the rack teeth and put a wrench over them and another wrench over the inner tie rod joint and untwist.

When you get the new bearing (recommended but not absolutely necessary) you take the new steering knuckle and the old hub the a shop that will press the new bearing on for you. As an alternative, if you have a pick and pull junkyard near you, you could just go there and get a used steering knuckle, hub, bearing and the inner and outer tie rods as one piece with minimal disassembly. You would pull the axle nut to get the axle out later, turn the steering wheel all the way to the left and if the bellows (boot) is not torn, just remove the clamp on the steering rack, and undo the inner tie rod end. Then remove the caliper by the caliper bracket (two bolts), the rotor. Then remove the castle nut for the lower ball joint and whack the lower control arm with a hammer to knock the lower ball joint out of the steering knuckle. Then remove the two bolts for the strut, now you can pull the steering knuckle and hub (with wheel bearing) and tie rod ends as a single unit.

If the lower ball joint will not separate from the steering knuckle with the aforementioned whack with a BFH (big flippin hammer, substitute any word for flippin), then you will need that small pitman arm puller. Some people will say you can use a pickle fork instead but I do not recommend that. It will tear up the rubber boot, which is Ok for the junk yard car but not your car.

Repeat on your vehicle and the reverse for installing the good unit on your car. You could take the unit to a shop and have the wheel bearing replace with a new one at this time for minimal additional cost, but if you do this to one side, then you may want to disassemble the other side and get a new bearing for it. It really is an urban myth that both bearings have to be replaced at the same time, but a lot of people still believe it so it is up to you, your car, your money.

 

Oh, and you should get a torque wrench, a beam type is what I would recommend.

Outer tie rod to knuckle 19 ft lbs
Inner tie rod to rack 70 ft lbs
Ball joint castle nut 55 ft lbs
axle nut 148 ft lbs
lug nuts (wheel nuts) 103 ft lbs

 

That was supposed to say tool list. I was typing on my phone and didn't notice it didn't finish the word. Thank you for the list and step by step. Those torque values are going to be handy. I'm pretty sure I can borrow a lot of this stuff from school if I can do it in time.

 

I should get the parts hopefully tomorrow. Here is hoping.