Hey all!

My Tie Rod boot needs to be replaced on my driver side steering arm on my car.

Do you guys have any idea how I would go about replacing this?
Is this a difficult task to do?
What tools would I need to replace this boot? Any special tools needed? if so, is it one that autozone have for rental?

Please help me.

Thanks
-Roops

 

-Lift and support the front of the car.
-Take of the tire on the side you'll be working on.
-Maybe turn the steering wheel to allow you more access to the rod end.
-Remove the cotter pin. (either keep and reuse or have a new one to replace it with)
-Loosen and remove the castle nut.
-Since your replacing the boot anyway, you can you use what some people call a pickle fork. You can rent them at AutoZone for like $15.
-Wedge the pickle fork in there and hit with a good size/weighted hammer until the tie rod pops out.
-Now you can remove the old boot. There may be a metal clip holding, if so just work that off first.
-Make sure the joint is clean of any dust or dirt and regrease it.
-I don't know if they sell those boot at the dealer or not, I've never had to buy one. But once you have the new boot, whether it's OEM or universal aftermarket from some part store, just reassmble everything in reverse order.

 

I couldnt find the boot anywhere, without waiting. Then I finally found one at a pepboys for $12. Then a few days after, I check honda, and they are selling it for $5. I cant find the recipt for the old one, because I wanted to return it.

I am worried about the pickle fork and hitting it part. I have never hit my car that hard before. Sould I be worried about damaging anything? or it is pretty fool proof? ( i consider myself fairly proficent mechanically speaking though).

 

oh, ok, so Honda does sell just the boot. Good to know incase I ever need one.

It's fine to use the pickle fork. It's just a wedge. You place it between the knuckle and the rod end and as you hit the end of the pickle fork it pops the rod end free from the knuckle. The only bad thing about pickle forks is they mess up the boot, but since your replacing the boot anyway, that doesn't matter. It shouldn't take much to get the rod end to pop free, not like it would be for say a lower ball joint or something.

 

oh man. I think I am confused. I think I am mixing up the tie rod end and the lower ball joint. I know the tie rod boot is broken. Is the tie tod that thing that hand down by the wheel by the steering arm?

Is the ball joint the one that's the joint at the axel by the wheels?

 

Tie rods are what connects the knuckles to the steering rack. The steering is connect to the steering wheel by the steering column.

There are two ball joints, upper and lower. They are located at the very top and very bottom of the knuckle. The upper ball joint is actuallt apart of the upper control arm. The upper ball joint goes through the upper part of the knuckle and holds the knuckle to the upper control arm. The upper control arm connects the top of the knuckle to the car. The lower ball joint is pressed into the knuckle and goes through the lower control arm holding the lower control arm to the bottom of the knuckle. The lower control arm holds the knuckle to the ream beam of the front subframe.

I'll see if I can find a picture to help describe this all.

 

ok, here are some diagrams to further explain what I wrote out up top.

the lower control arm is part #11 & 13 in this picture


this pricture shows the knuckle (#1 & 3), the upper control arm w/ upper ball joint (#5 & 6) and the lower ball joint (#4)


this picture shows the tie rod ends (#15 & 17) which connect to the inner tie rod (#1) which then connects to the steering rack (#18)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TouringAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

this picture shows the tie rod ends (#15 & 17) which connect to the inner tie rod (#1) which then connects to the steering rack (#18)
</TD></TR></TABLE>

So, the part I need to pop out with the pickle fork is number 15&17?
First I remove the cotter pin is # 26, right?
Then the castle nut #22,
Then pop out the aseembly 15&17 with the Pickly fork?

I dont understand how the pickle for would affect the tie rod boot (#11) though?
Are we talking about the same boot?

 

oh, haha, no. I was referring to #16. lol

I'm sorry.

For that, you'll need to sorta go through the same steps but after getting the tie rod seperated from the knuckle you'll need to remove the outer tie rod end from the inner tie rod. Then you'll be able to replace #11. Be careful using the pickle fork, it almost always rips #16. I've heard of people just using a hammer with a piece of wood or brass or something and hit the tie rod end in the middle area to pop it out of the knuckle but I don't know if thats bad or not.

Edit:
Also, it's recommended that you get an alignment after removing the tie rod end. Make sure when you remove it though that you try not to move the nut that still on the inner tie rod. Or make sure you mark it's position so your alignment isn't way off.

 

Couldnt I just unscrew #1&14 to take this off? without taking off the inner tie rod end?

 

you mean so you don't have to remove the outer tie rod end? Since the inner tie rod is #1.

yeah, I guess you could do it that way. I wasn't thinking of that. But I don't see why you couldn't do it that way.

 

Cool. I'll do some more research about it to see if it can work that way. Thanks alot.

 

yep, np

I don't see any problems with doing it that way though. If you come up with a reason why you can't do it that way, let us know.