1996 Accord Ex, Steering and Suspension issues.

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Ichigo1174

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Alright as the title states I am driving a 1996 Honda Accord EX. I am cheap and realize that I need to replace a bunch of little things and need to pick up some tools so I am trying to do them by priority in a timely manner.

I know a lot of random things about cars but through the power of Youtube I have found that it is easy to learn alot. Eric the Car Guy helps a lot with how to's to fix and search for answers. I have been hearing some clunking and stuff in my car and I have been needing to replace the right CV Axle so I figured I should try and see what all might be wrong and replace a few things or bushings.

Yeah The CV Axel was making some noise and i can see why.


Now the next two things that really caught my eye were the upper and lower ball joints on the right side as well. I mean they had some play and if they broke... wouldn't the wheel fall off? Essentially?
Backside of the upper ball joint, it can dance around a little bit.


Lower ball joint, it too is ripped and can do the shuffle (a little bit)


So i have ordered a right CV Axel, a upper control arm, and a lower ball joint. I was going to try and replace all three. I was like dang, I really only started because I wanted to replace an axel and to get a set of tires. I know some places will not do an alignment with bad suspension parts so I wanted to replace a tie rod.

On the left side the outer tie rod looks fine as far as the bushing/joint. Right where the bend is in the middle of the joint (i guess this is the inner tie rod) is where it is loose. There is a lot of play in the joint. :/

How Difficult would it be to replace this?

Also the right side of the Rack and Pinion is leaking PS fluid. Not very fast but it is leaking and I want to fix this after summer unless it gets too bad. Do I have to buy a new/remanufactured rack or can I purchase a seal kit and rebuild it?


Then later I will replace the sway bar end links and maybe the bushings as well if they are bad.



Yes I know it is very dirty in my car and it looks like I spray under there with oil but I promise you all I don't. There is a leak somewhere... probably the oil pan seal but I'm not really worried about it.
 
Be worried about the oil leak, it's likely the valve cover gasket, and/or the VTEC solenoid, and/or the distributor seals.
HOWEVER:
IF those items are not to blame, you're likely looking at a rear main seal. That item requires your tranny to be removed, if not the whole she-bang pulled to accomplish, google the part for an idea why.

Most of the rest of that is simple to accomplish.
ebay and google man!

All the tie rods/ball joints/axels, just be aware the special tools like impact driver and tie rod puller (which you'll potentially need for lower ball joints) Can NOT be forced, yeah you gotta wallop a tie rod puller, but don't have your buddy hold the puller while you slam it with a 30lb sledge!

Steering, I know little about the Honda power rack-n-pinion, but ebay and google know a lot, look for parts, new ones, rebuilt, rebuild kits, etc, this will help you determine cost as well feasibility of rebuilding.
 
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