TIS procedure for tie rod assembly R&R?

[semcoinc]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Just wanted to update this thread as I ended up having a seized tie rod which made the shop unable to perform my alignment this past weekend:

Got 2 brand new Meyle HD tie rods from FCP Euro for $125 shipped, which is about $25 less than ECS charges and about $35 less than the Lemforders referenced in previous threads, I had great success so far with Meyle HD on my thrust arms, so I thought I would give the tie rods a shot as well.

Not to be confused with run of the mill Meyle products, the HD's are built better and carry a 4 year warranty, worth the extra 10 bucks in my opinion. First impressions on unboxing were they were beefy, made of good steel especially on the nuts, and came with all hardware needed.

I have 22mm for the outer tie rod end, but I'm going to try an adjustable wrench on the inner nut for 38mm. If the adjustable wrench slips I'll go to harbor freight, get the 50 dollar kit which has the 38mm wrench, and hopefully keep it clean enough to return when finished :laugh:

I'm going to try to take some pics of the process if I can but it seems to be straight forward.

Hi RB,

AMAZING! Today I also experienced a seized tie rod end and the shop couldn't do my alignment! I battled it during my front end refresh and thought I was just losing strength and needed some more gym time but the shop battled it too and gave up!

I had bought a new outer end and now will need to get an inner and outer set on the way! DAMN!

Well to update this thread, here is a doctored image for those who look in on this thread for torques



Wish I had just bought the inner and outer to start with. Damn, I totally missed the inner in my thinking just assuming that the outer joint is the one that flexes and just needed that one. Wasn't counting on the mega seize to get me.

Mike

[Ricky Bobby]

That is too funny Mike! Yeah I'm finding these seize up pretty easily - guy was working on it for a while with torch too -

I assembled with some anti-seize on the new rods and been running well for a few years now, I did the swap at home and just took it to the shop the next day to get it aligned -

Phenomenal image of the torque specs Mike that was super helpful!

[semcoinc]

Hey RB,

Yeah an amazing coinkydink

I hit mine with propane torch heat and PB Blaster soaking a couple days prior. NO GO!!!

I improved upon a picture another Xoutpost member had created and added a few more specs.

Mike

[80stech]

So you guys are saying that the the adjustment portion of the tie rod is seizing and shops are unable to free them to do wheel alignment ???

[semcoinc]

Yes the outer rod end with ball joint is seized on the inner male shaft which requires that BOTH inner and outer be replaced as an assembly.

Mike

[RFaber]

I find the 1.5 sae size wrench works ( I use redneck metric adapters , strips of beer can aluminum, to make up the tiny difference) but the 1.5 snugs up on the inner tie rod pretty well.
great pics and torque spec listings!
oh, if you got your stuff from FCP, its not just a 4 yr warrantee, its lifetime