removed the ball joint last night from the knuckle, but I cant remove the outer tie rod, should I get a cheapo propane torche and heat the bitch up?

I think I'm gonna buy one, but what are some otehr ideas to remove the stuck on tie rod?

 

Is it stuck in the spindle? if so and you plan on replacing it just hammer a BJ fork in there to pop it. If you plan on re-using it get a puller.

 

no removing it from the inner tie rod, the nut that attaches. I already used a fork to seperate the ball joint.

I cant figure out how to remove the entire outer tie rod

 

anyone please!!

 

you just use a 22mm wrench on the locknut.

its not part of the outer tie rod. once you loosen it (it is a bitch to get off tho) it will be obvious how to take the tie rod off.

 

ok what size is the other part to remove the tie rod?

 

there is no other part.

 

dont u gotta grab the outer tie rod in two places, one on the locknut and one on the tie rod part that looks like its made for a wrench?

 

this is a horrible picture. im only showing it because you obviously need pictoral help.

ignore the red wrench on the inner tie rod. (where it says "leave that there")

and put the balljoint in loosely while you loosen the 22mm locknut instead of leaving it dangling like shown.



and dont use goddam pipe wrenches on your suspension. use the proper tools.


horrible horrible picture. but whatever.

 

I tried it while it was dangling, and while it was in the knuckle, I heated it up as well but still no luck, u r supposed to turn it counter clockwise right?

 

i told you, its a bitch to get off.

use your legs and brace yourself.

 

I tried to hold the actual tie rod end with a 19mm wrench, supporting that and then pushing on the 22mm nut with my feet, but it still refused to come off, the wrench even slipped off.

do I have any other choices?

COUNTER-CLOCKWISE right????

 

righty tighty, lefty loosey.

saying counter clockwise is irrelevant since it depends on how you look at it.

dont try to hold the tie rod. just brace it against the swaybar or control arm or axle.

 

I totally stripped the 19mm part on the tie rod. The 22mm nut still is ok, and I cant install it into my knuckle because the castle nut and threads were broken off. I think its too rusted to remove, I might have it towed to a shop because I'm out of ideas.

Not even a pipe wrench or vise grips can hold, just strips the tie rod

 

you dont have to just grip the tie rod by the 19mm hex cut out. you can use any of the flat part, as shown in the pic.

sigh. whatever. at worst you can take the whole steering rack off (youll have to properly take the other side tie rod off this time) and remove the inner tie rod. replace both the inner and outer.

 

It sounds like your problem is that you can't get the locknut to come loose and the tube part is buggered, now. Before I had it towed to a shop, their are a couple of ways to get it off. First, you can use a large chisel and a sledge hammer, to chisel into the nut enough to cause it to crack, so you can get it off. Second, you can get a cutoff tool and just nick the nut enough to get it to break loose. The tie rod end is threaded into the tube and then it has the locknut which tightens against the tube, to keep things from turning.

 

I'll try a chisle, or maybe a saw might work. I guess a locknut from honda is pretty inexpensive

 

I got my friend to bring over his high heat torch, it broke the lock nut loose ut no matter how much hotter we get it it wont break any more. im going to try some PB blaster for the next couple of days and hopefully that will back the nut off enough to remove the outer tie rod.

if u have any other ideas please chime in with any suggestions

 

you could have dropped the whole rack by now...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tyson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you could have dropped the whole rack by now...</TD></TR></TABLE>Or just bought inner and outer ends and cut the damn thing in half to get the boot off.

 

its easier to replace the inner tie rod with the steering rack off anyway.

 

I replaced mine with problem solving tie rod ends that you can actually use the inner tie rod end tool on.

 

what tool?

crows foot?

biggest trouble i have is bending the tabs back. and if not that, then just wrenching the tie rod off with everything like the swaybar and control arm and axles in the way.

its possible, ive done it several times, but after taking the steering rack off, i found its just easier and i get a better job done with it off.

 

An inner tie rod end tool. It looks like a big tube and you put a crows foot type thing in it. Put a 1/2 inch ratchet on the end and turn it loose . Works a lot better than using an open ended wrench that has been cut in half.

 

sounds intriguing.


how do you unbend the tabs? just break the lock washer tabs off?

then how do you bend the tabs in properly?