Replacing Tie Rod

[bcar240]

This is my first time doing multilink suspension work, I am replacing the tie rods and while I have found many writeups on how to do the ends I am not sure exactly how to replace the rods. I am at the point where I want to remove the old tie rods completly from the car. But don't want to put a lot of force on something without being sure it is the right thing to be putting force on.

Here is a picture of where I am:



I had to bend the fringes of that locking plate thing out of the way because I couldn't remove where it was crimped down. I am assuming I am supposed to turn "B" while holding "A", I was doing this until I was pulling quite a bit and it didn't budge. Just want to make sure. Thanks!

[naed240sx]

Yeah, the tabs are there to make sure that the tie rod doesn't unscrew itself. Bend em back, hold B and turn A. B is the steering rack, and will not turn without busting the rack. My advice, use a nice long wrench, and while holding the wrench on B, Smack the end of the wrench on A with a hammer. Acts like an impact wrench, and should free it up. Good luck!

[bcar240]

allright, thanks! after a rain delay, I was able to get it off with just an iota more force than I was using. But now I am not sure what to do about the replacement. When it is threaded in all the way, the faces of the tie rod don't match up with the tabs on the anti-rotation plate thing. When it is backed out enough to allow the tabs to fold down, the tie rod is pretty loose in the threads, you can turn it freely with your hands. What should I do about this? Thanks again!

[naed240sx]

Scrap the locking washer. I did. Just torque it down a lot, or use lok-tite, check after driving to make sure it didnt loosen at all, and you are good to go.

[naed240sx]

BTW, why are you replacing the rods? Did you bend em or just decide to replace them with aftermarkets? Post up some pics of the finished work if they are aftermarket.

[bcar240]

I got some loktite, so that and some wrenching should do it. Thanks one more time!

I bent one hitting one of those surprise traffic circles , figured I might as well get stronger ones while I'm at it.

I will definitely post 'em up when I'm done!

[bcar240]

Images, as promised. After I had everything bolted I took it out for a cautious test drive. Was some of the most crazy steering ever. Somehow the adjustments I made to the tie rods beforehand got thrown way off during the install. Adjusted the tie rods again and it was better. An alignment is in the near future...

[naed240sx]

Looks good. What brands are the tie rods and tension rods? Were they both installed at the same time? If they were done separately, I would like to know how the new tension rods affected handling.

[McRussellPants]

your supposed to have one of the spacers on either side of the rod end.

heads up.

[chmercer]

Looks good. What brands are the tie rods and tension rods? Were they both installed at the same time? If they were done separately, I would like to know how the new tension rods affected handling.

both pieces are SPLParts

nah you dont put the ring spacer deals on both sides of the rod end, only on the bottom.



like that.

might want to put that in there, or else you could cause premature damage to the rod end.

[bcar240]

ya, I was wondering about that. There was a little metal ring in there that looked like a steering angle spacer, but since their website had those listed as costing extra I figured it was the bottom misalignment spacer like on that diagram. It doesn't look quite the same as the one in the pic, but I put it on there.