Hi and question

[gzusphish]

Got a 95 240SX SE I bought a couple of years ago and just paid off.

Bout to do my first easy project on it. Shop told me I needed new outer tie rod ends and tension rod bushings (aka strut arm/strut rod/tension arm bushings - they can't seem to make up their minds what to call these). Wanted to charge me $600 to replace them so I decided now was a good time to pull out my FSM.

Anyway...(rambling a bit here)...getting to the point...

I bought the Chilton manual for my car because it had really nice instructions on changing outer tie rod ends. So I got a wild hair and decided to see if it had a better diagram of the tension rod bushing I had to change than my FSM did. It did, in fact, have a better diagram but several of the components in the diagram have a little symbol beside them of a white x on a black dot. HERE IS THE QUESTION -> what is the stoopid x for? It must be meaningful or they wouldn't have wasted their ink or my time by putting it in there. Furthermore, the book doesn't have a legend or description of the symbols in exploded diagrams anywhere. Does anybody know what this means. I can provide a scan if that would be helpful.

[tramp_drift240]

yeah you should scan it.

outer tie rods are pretty easy to change out, i did my inners and outers myself and it seemed alright. just make sure you get your front end aligned afterward, just in case.

[gzusphish]

[davidb688]

you know i just got this manual and was wondering the same thing. ka-t.org has all 240sx FSMs for download and i searched the FAQ and forums there but no luck. you can try asking someone there too though. good luck.

[SR24DET]

Well, not sure what the "X"'s are but outer tie rods are cake.

1. Get a tie rod fork for an auto parts store.2. Jack your car up in the air.3. Take your wheel off.4. Take pin out of bolt that goes through the castle nut on the nuckle.5. Remove castle nut.6. Mark with tape or a marker on your inner tie rod where the outer meets the inner.7. Use the tie rod fork to seperate the outer tie rod from the nuckle. Jam it in there and use a hammer on the back of the tie rod fork. Pry them apart.8. Once the seperate, just unscrew the outer tie rod. If need be put a wrench on the inner tie rod to keep it from spining.9. Install new tie rod. Screw up to the mark you made.10. Reconnect tierod to nuckle. 11. Put on castle nut.12. Put in pin and bend it.13. Put back on wheel.14. Go get an alignment.

I havent done one of these in a year, but I dont think I missed a step. Just start doing it, when you look at it, its very straight forward.

[davidb688]

i just found it on page GI (general info) - 7 of my FSM: under symbols and abbreviations it says "Always replace after every disassembly".
Modified by davidb688 at 9:45 AM 7/21/2009