Last night I was driving out of a friends gravel driveway. Someone had parked behind me, so I put the truck in 4wd to avoid spitting gravel on them. I slowly turned but, as it was dark, I went into a small divot in the road, which torqued my steering to the right (this was one of the first times I had used 4wd) and pulled my truck over my friends large rock driveway border. I hit one of the rocks with my front tire, which slammed my arm into my leg. When I got out of his driveway, I assumed nothing was wrong with the truck placed the car in 2wd and started driving on the pavement towards my house.

However, the steering at this point appeared to be misaligned and required me to have the steering wheel about 1/4th of a turn to the left in order to go straight. When I would make a turn, especially to the right (the side which the rock had hit) the wheels would squeal loudly even at speeds of <5mph.

It being late, I needed to get the thing home and when I did I saw no body damage.

I jacked the truck up and took the wheel off, and it appeared to be fairly undamaged (not warped or bent). I'm not a mechanic, but I'm fairly knowledgeable and can look things up if given a place to start. I'd like to avoid bringing this into a shop if at all possible.

Possible bent tie rod

Look like this with the nipple going down though

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Here is a picture of one bent

It may not be obvious it is bent either

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please delete this.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I'm about 90% sure that's the problem.

Here's a close up of the right (damaged) tie rod:

A bit farther away:

And my undamaged left one:


Can anyone confirm that a bent tie rod is my problem?

And if it is my problem, will a part like this be able to replace it?

Yes that is the part you need

From your 2nd picture it kinda looks bent.

When replacing it is critical that you get it exactly threaded back to the same spot. Our your alignment will be off.

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