Alright, so I just lowered the front half of my car today and loosened/tightened a bunch of crap I didn't need to lol. Everything went smoothly except for the passenger's side outer tie rod end which loosened up, but wouldn't tighten back down.

Basically, for some reason there was no or didn't seem like there was a pin (part 36) on the threaded shaft of part 25. So my friend took the impact and attempted to loosen part 25 in the diagram. The castle nut (I think that's what it's called...part 31) loosened about halfway then part 25 began to spin freely. When we tried to retighten it, part 25 just kept spinning freely and the castle nut was jammed on. So...after lowered my car I took it slow home and noticed a helluvalot more steering rack play (about 2 inches more).



I don't feel safe driving the car with the loose outer tie rod end...help on re-tightening it please? Or do I need a new part?

Thanks a lot!



*btw*H&R OE Sport springs + Illumina's tuck 14's!

 

just get new ones, bottom line our cars are well over a decade old and would benefit from the new parts....I need to get new ones as well.

 

try tightening this bolt while the car is on the ground.

and/or try prying up on the ball joint while someone tightens the nut.
the ball joints will often spin unless loaded

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ammob16 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just get new ones, bottom line our cars are well over a decade old and would benefit from the new parts....I need to get new ones as well.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'll be getting new tie rod ends/ball joints for sure in a few weeks, but for now this is my daily driver .

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sxy_rexi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">try tightening this bolt while the car is on the ground.

and/or try prying up on the ball joint while someone tightens the nut.
the ball joints will often spin unless loaded</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'll give that a try tomorrow, thanks . Any advice on how to do this? prybar?

 

i had the same problem with the lower ball joint, i just replaced it.

 

pickle fork, prybar etc..

ya replacing it is probably the easiest way to fix the problem... tie rods get pretty nasty and worn.. not too cheap tho.

if you decide to get a new one... just count the number of turns it takes to get it off... and then count that many turns on with the new one.. this should get you pretty close so you shouldnt have to get an alignment for a while or at all.

you'll need a 22mm and a 19mm open end, (and i think) a 17mm and probably a dead blow.

the castle nut torques to 35 ft lbs