Front shock rubs against tie rod

[arazdolgin]

I have Kenworth W900 with 800,000 miles on it doing heavy haul. Recently started to hear some noise from the front. Found out that the passenger side’s shock rubs against tie rod. Left one doesn’t. Anybody experienced this? Can it push through and i can lost power steering control?

[Rawze]

I would say that you have something serious wrong.. BOTH sides look quite low compared to the tie rod.

It almost looks to me like some spacers are missing at the leaf sopring hangers. Like maybe someone tried to lower the front end improperly?>.. or maybe bad leaf springs?.. something is wrong there.


... and yeah...


I guess if you don't care about killing yourself, or someone else.. then I would say something serious needs to be fixed ASAP!

[Nostalgic]

It looks like the tie rod is slightly bent up in the pictures. I'll bet you are toed out if that's the case. Saddle bagged on anything or had to cut hard in soft ground or against a curb when cutting tight and heavy?

I'm with Rawze, this is a ASAP fix regardless of the cause, and a definite safety hazard especially when it's unclear what the cause is. Imagine if it catches the pinch bolt or rips the tie rod end out?

[Bengy88]

Maybe the pin that keeps the plate that the shock bolts go in place is worn and has let the plate walk toward the tie rod. Or a center bolt is broken. Or the hole in the plate has worn oblonged. I would ask KW parts department for a breakdown of the front spring and see if something is missing. Make it sound like you need a part and don’t know what it’s called and they will usually text you a picture.

I would also start checking u-bolts, probably loosen them and jack the spring off the axle and take everything apart to make sure nothing is worn or broken. As Rawze stated. Suspension is nothing to play or guess with. There is too much room for error and too many lives are at stake. Especially on the steer axle. If you can’t say that without a doubt your steer axle and steer axle components are in 100% tip top shape then that truck needs to be parked.

[Nostalgic]

(03-22-2023 )Bengy88 Wrote:  Maybe the pin that keeps the plate that the shock bolts go in place is worn and has let the plate walk toward the tie rod. Or a center bolt is broken. Or the hole in the plate has worn oblonged. I would ask KW parts department for a breakdown of the front spring and see if something is missing. Make it sound like you need a part and don’t know what it’s called and they will usually text you a picture.

I would also start checking u-bolts, probably loosen them and jack the spring off the axle and take everything apart to make sure nothing is worn or broken. As Rawze stated. Suspension is nothing to play or guess with. There is too much room for error and too many lives are at stake. Especially on the steer axle. If you can’t say that without a doubt your steer axle and steer axle components are in 100% tip top shape then that truck needs to be parked.

From the pictures, it doesn't appear that anything is moving on the spring/saddle, but it's worth inspecting. Just know that any time you loosen a u-bolt, it should be replaced. When torqued correctly, they stretch and the threads distort. Re-using a u-bolt that has been in service and torqued to spec can cause it to become loose by a combination of the distorted threads and/or the fact the ubolt doesn't have the same ... I'm searching for the right term, tensile strength/stretch/ability to hold. No to mention that they usually have rusted threads and achieving correct preload with torque specs is difficult.

[tree98]

That shock mount appears to be bent down. Look at it compared to the leafs above it.

[marek4792]

Another option would be to flip the mounts so they're on top of the spring pack and find shorter shocks, this will lower your front end abit though.

[schISM]

Have you checked the king pin to make sure it’s ok? It looks like the drag link is rubbing the side of the shock as well. I’d jack it up and make sure there’s no side to side as well as up and down movement. Definitely make sure the lower thrust washer isn’t missing (#7 in diagram)

[Pete379]

To expand on what Rawze was saying. On our Kenworth’s, with 20k steer axles and 3 spring packs like in those pictures, we have a pretty substantial spacer block that sits on the axle then castor shims and spring on top of that. Without the spacer block installed and springs sitting right on top of axle like that there would no doubt be contact between the lower shock mount/shock and the tie rod bar.