im trying to take off the inner tie rods and rack bushing, but have no clue on what to do after the boot comes off. I think its the skinny nut between the Big nut and washers that needs to be removed? please confirm.



back side

 

that doesnt look like a stock tie rod. i dont really know how it would come off other than just the obvious wrenching.


whats stopping you from just wrenching it off like this?



Modified by Tyson at 1:46 PM 8/27/2005

 

Thats exactly how you would get an inner tie rod off. There is a special tool thats used for the job, but its only to make things easier. A box wrench can be used to just screw off the joint. The special tool is a pipe, and a set of wrench heads. You pick the right wrench head, put it over the joint then slide the pipe over the entire tie rod, locking it in with the wrench head. Then you use a 1/2 inch ratchet and unscrew it. This is offcourse after you removed the outer tie rod, or else the pipe woulnd fit over.

 

hahahaha

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tyson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
whats stopping you from just wrenching it off like this?

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I just did this exact same thing (and I remember your other thread) and it was a pain in the ***. The picture with the red drawing of the wrench is how you remove the inner end from the steering shaft. Once off, you can look down in the rack and see the white plastic bushing that you will be replacing. On the top and bottom there are circular pegs that hold it in place (along with the fact that its ******* crammed in there) you have to release those pegs inward and pull out all at the same time. I was able to get mine with a big cotter pin puller and some smaller picks. The real PITA is getting the tie rod back together so what I did was removed the outter tie rod so the whole thing was out, measured it out and replaced the inner tie rod first (screwing into the rack with the wheel turned all the way to the left to fully extend the shaft). Then turned back in a little bit and re-attached the outter ball joint. I just got back from getting it all aligned and it drives night and day better. It still has a small shimmy while accellerating at and past 50 mph so im not sure what that means but my front end used to sound like it was gonna jump off the car when i went over bumps and **** on the freeway. Good Luck~

 

well, i finished up an hour ago and wow, that bushing is a pain to remove. took the majority of the time. As far as the picture goes up top, when i was reading everyones experience with replacing this bushing, they made it seem so ******* hard with all kinds of chisels and punches that were needed to take off lock washers in order to remove the inner tie rod. for the inner tie rod to come out there were no lock washers holding it in, so now i'm wondering what the **** everyone was rambling about. Anyways i'm glad i did this and now finished with replacing all the 14 year old suspension parts including:

upper arm
lower ball joint
inner/outer rie rods
rack end bushing
sway bar bushings
eibach springs
koni yellows

 

like i said, those inner tie rods you have are not stock. someone replaced them with some aftermarket unit, and probably did not install it correctly.

glad you got it done finally. dont forget to adjust the steering rack gear box on the driver side.

 

same with mine. when i replaced the inner tie rods they were actually two different kinds. on side had the ball joint attatched from the wheel side and the other had the ball joint attatched the rack side. anyway what i'm trying to say is they were different. and one was loose as a goose and making a rattling when i accelerated.

 

so one final question about the lock washer. Is the washer with the tabs supposed to be hammered down and crushed onto the nut, preventing it from backing out?

 

yeah.