OK, I've started tearing apart the front end. After removing the castle
nut, the outer tie rod came out of the steering knuckle extremely easy
(barely needed a pickle fork). The castle nut was on there pretty solid
though, but I think it was time for it to go anyways. Now...
How do I get the inner tie rod off the Center Link bar? I rented a Tie Rod
Tool from AutoZone. it is two parts... one is a long bar (1/2" socket
adapter) that slides over the tie rod shaft after removing the outer tie
rod; and the second is a cutaway piece that fits into the long bar and has
flat sides to grip the flat sides of the inner tie rod. I had to cut away
the boot of the inner tie rod to get the cutaway piece to slide over it
(didn't need it anyways). The cutaway piece is too large to fit the
flattened sides. I'm going to call AutoZone tomorrow to see if they have a
smaller tool.
Has anyone been able to do this themselves? If I can get the right tools or
the right approach, this will work great! I'm hoping to leave town next
week Thursday and need to get the tie rods replaced.
BTW, there is no clearance to get a box wrench up in there... Nor would
there be enough room to get it torqued down properly.
Thanks!
Chris Reck
Bloomington, IL
'99 Dakota Sport + CC 4x4 V6 (Deep Amethyst)
Shaved and polished V8 TB, Autolite 3923, 195 Thermostat, 7.5mm Bosch plug
wires,
Custom K&N 6x9 air intake, Rancho RSX shocks, Pioneer full audio system,
BF Goodrich 32x11.5r15 T/A KO tires
"Barry Oliver" <barrysuperhawk@insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:44E2FD9D.3090309@insightbb.com...
>
> Chris Reck wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I have a 99 4x4 and was wondering how hard it would be for someone to
>> replace all the tie rod ends on the front. I have a Right front inner
>> tie rod going, and since I'll need to get an alignment, I figured that I
>> would save ~$300 labor and do it myself.
>>
>> I have done shocks, brakes, and the upper ball joints before... but this
>> one is new. Any special tools or problems that I would run into? Any
>> tricks regarding the placement nuts so that the alignment is close to
>> what it was before I would start?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Chris Reck
>> Bloomington, IL
>>
>> '99 Dakota Sport + CC 4x4 V6 (Deep Amethyst)
>> Shaved and polished V8 TB, Autolite 3923, 195 Thermostat, 7.5mm Bosch
>> plug wires,
>> Custom K&N 6x9 air intake, Rancho RSX shocks, Pioneer full audio system,
>> BF Goodrich 32x11.5r15 T/A KO tires
>
>
> Chris, if you would like to come down and make use of the Air tools, just
> let me know. I haven't done Tie rods on my '99 4x4, but I have on my GF's
> car. With a level and a straight board you can get pretty darn close to
> straight alignment - when I took her car in to align it after I was done
> they said it was 100% perfect - a Miracle if I ever saw one!
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Sep 01 2006 - 10:07:45 EDT