TEIN inner and outer tie rods - installation questions

[Black R]

I purchased TEIN inner and outer tie rods from http://www.240sxmotoring.com

I didn't need the inners, but the oem inners won't work with TEIN outers, so I purchased the TEIN inners as well.

I installed them this past weekend.

Well they came with castle nuts and cotter pins for the outer tie rods, but were missing the nuts that lock the inners and outers together after you adjust them. They were also missing the 'spacer' listed in the instructions that you can use instead of that weird square thing with tabs that you use to lock the inners to the steering rack once you have tightened them down.

I went to ACE hardware and got some nuts to lock the inners to the outers, and I bought some brass spacers to go between the inners and the steering rack.

Now my question is what keeps the inner tie rods from coming loose? I mean I'm not using the inner square thing with the tabs because I'm going by the TEIN instructions for additional steering angle..... so I replaced that with a little spacer instead. But there's no way to keep it 'locked' to the steering rack now - I only used a wrench to tighten it down to 55 ft-lb.

Should I be concerned at all?

Also, a friend of mine told me I would need to cut or dremel off the tabs that are on the inside of the fenders to the back side of the wheels - because with the added steering angle, they will eat into your tires at full lock..... it looks like he's right. Do you use a grinder or just cut them down?

[adrianfromthecastle]

I'm still not exactly sure where you're problem lies..

but here's the install instructions from SPL. (of course, they use their own outer rods and oem z32 inner)http://splparts.com/doc/SPLTieRodEnd/default.htm

as far as the "tab" part, are you talking about the metal thingy that sticks out that seems like its parrallel to the firewall? If so, just take a hammer to it and hammer it down so that it doesn't eat up your tires.

[slo_coupe]

I have Tien inners and outers on my daily driver. For the inner i used a little bit of thread lock to make sure it wont loosen up since i used the spacer. I also use thread lock on all inners i do work as well. As far as the fendr rubbing, i only rubbed maybe 3 times and i had them on for about 5 months. My car is lowered with springs and running 205/55r15 tires. Make sure you get an alignment done because i didnt. I kept pushing it off .

[Philipio]

The instructions tell you to use the spacers with threadlocker to keep it in place, which is exactly what I did. No problems whatsoever; feels amazing. Or if you don't use the spacers, you're supposed to put the square with the tabs back in place (the instructions also recommend you buy new ones).

And listen to slo_coupe, you need an alignment right after. I drove straight to get my car aligned right after the install was finished.

[Black R]

I'm going to get an alignment asap, but am waiting to get some steering rack bushings as well (just in case those might affect it).

I didn't see anything in the instructions about using threadlocker - doh!