2001 Montero LTD play in the Rack and Pinion
 

This is my second Gen 3 Monty and i LOVE them. This one has 214k miles on it. I'm asking for advice with play in the rack and pinion when I jack it up. There is little to no play in the steering wheel while driving. When driving it sounds/feels like front tires have a hard time sticking to the ground when i hit bumps/potholes and if I'm turning and hit a bump the whole truck nose jumps over a half foot :). Most my friends say new struts will fix ALL this including play in rack and pinion but sounds like it needs more work than that to me. Any help on what to do will be greatly appreciated!!!

I am in the process of eliminating play in a 01 Montero Sport with 137000 road miles. Here is what I have done so far.

1. Adjusted play in the steering gear box.
2. Previous owner didn't load the front bearings correctly, so I set the load properly, eliminating 1/8 inch of lateral play in both front wheels.
3. Got a 4 wheel alignment done.

All three improved the steering a great deal.

I still have a lack of good tracking when the vehicle crosses the crown of the road at 70 mph--it shifts like it shifted its weight, and I have to shift the wheel at the same time to keep it from darting to the down-hill side. I will be checking my tie rod ends, and my idler and pitman arms next (when I can avoid lying on my back in the snow). I don't think your Montero will have idler and pitman arms, so I would suggest checking your tie rod ends. If you have a standard rack and pinion system, most cars have ball joints on both the inner and outer tie rods, so you may have to check two places on each side for play.

It could be ball joints too, as well as failed bushings on the A arms of the front suspension.

Thanks @jburney I'll give that a try.