Unable to align after replacing lower control arms and tie rod ends!

[jwwpua]

I replaced my lower control arms (had cracks in them) and tie rod ends (outer) on my 1995 240SX (s14). Afterwards it was WAY out of alignment. The wheels pointed in dramatically and so I towed it to the alignment shop on a trailer.

After looking at it, they said I used the wrong tie rod ends because they were too long, so I showed them the ones I took off and they were the same. They told me they used up all the threads but it was still over a degree off (not good enough to drive a lot on). And they can't figure out why they can't align it.

The thing is, before replacing the control arms and tie rod ends, the car was aligned very well. Since the tie rod ends are the same as the old ones, the only thing I can think is that the lower control arms changed it. But I got them from the Nissan dealership! They were the same as the ones I took off.

Any ideas what is wrong??

thanks!

[NISTECH]

something is wrong with the lower control arms. Has to be if the tie rods are identical to the old ones. The arms you put on have to be shorter from ball joint to foward inner mount bushing. Get out a tape measure and measure from the center of the ball joint to the center of the forward inner mount bolt. Then compare that measurement to the arms you took off.

[jwwpua]

It turns out that the new control arms are 1/4" longer from the ball joint to the .. hinge (?) on the other end. That's what messed with the alignment so much. Since the tie rod ends are already screwed on all the way up to the end of the threads, I had a couple of ideas that I wanted to run by a professional.

The first idea is to replace the lock nuts on the tie rods with a thinner nut to allow the tie rod ends to screw on further, thus relieving the "pigeon-toed" alignment (right now there's a 1/2" difference between the distance between the back of the tires and the distance between the front of the tires). Would this be okay to try if I found a nut with the same threading, but just thinner than the one already on it?

The other idea is to grind down the tie rod ends enough to allow them to screw on farther and fix the alignment. I have 2 new extra tie rod ends in case I messed this up somehow.

Are these ideas viable? I don't think I can return/exchange the control arms so I'm trying to find an alernative to buying 2 more.

Thanks for the help!

[NISTECH]

Well obviously they sold you the wrong parts. They should take them back. I would not recommend ghettoing it the ways you mentioned. This is your steering your talking about.