new hub assembly-$45
rebuilt half-shaft score at the junk yard-$35
staying up till 2:15am to get the tierod end castle nut to thread-PRICELESS

oh the things one will do to get the car ready for the weekend

 

Don't smack on the end of the tie rod stud with anything to get it out, dude. You should be able to free them from the tapered hole by whanging the outside of the meaty part of the steering arm (where the stud goes through) with a ballpeen whammer...

Kirk

 

yup. thats exactly what i did. and i knew it would reek havolk, but i was hoping that i'd get away with it.
i did the half shaft swap done in 20 min. tho. very suprised how dang easy it was.

 

I killed my three month old tie rod ends with a pitman arm puller, the damn t.r.e bold is made of some soft stuff, the thrad was crushed and the castle nut wouldnt come off.

 

yea. my tierod end is only a few weeks old. so there was no way i was gonna give it up.

 

The tierod seperation from the hub sucks bunghole. We spent some time trying to baby it off, and when that didn't work, we rented a seperator tool which tore the boots all to $hit. Finally, we beat the living hell out of them to the point where we just replaced both front tierods. Pain in the ****.

John -- have hammer, will travel. Anyone need a crew chief?