Outer Tie Rod Replacement help

[MMAFIGHTER121]

When I go to remove the outer tie rod, I can't stop the inner from spinning with it. There's a little hexish area on the inner but its only like 13mm or so so I can't really get any adequate grip to it, a standard crescent wrench is beginning to shear it. any tips?

 

[Hawk03]

Buy this and cut it off, other wise you will need to try some vise grips and try and stabilize it from spinning.

It will save you time and a lot of frustration trying to deal with it.

http://www.harborfreight.com/electric-body-saw-65766.html

 

[MMAFIGHTER121]

at this point i'm trying to spin the inner rod and lock the outer in place by attaching it back on the other end, but yea - i can't seem to get enough grip on it and keep slipping and rounding it off. seems to be really rusted on there. I would cut it off, but I don't want to risk cutting through onto the threads of the inner tie rod.

 

[Eric0508]

did you back off the nut that holds the tie rod in place? If you did, my only advice is to get a pair of vice grips, clamp the hell out of it, and brace those against another suspension piece or the body

 

[MMAFIGHTER121]

yea I backed off that nut..

heeheeheee.

But seriously this is frustrating.

 

[Ken]

I could have sworn that the inner tie rod end had a groove that you can hold it with a open box wrench. If not, hold it with a pipe wrench.

 

[Soopa009]

I used a pipe wrench around the inner tie rod because the teeth of the wrench fit well in the grooves. Instead of holding the wrench I just let it rest against the frame of the car and started spinning the outer tie rod.. I used a open head wrench to spin the outer tie rod by the way. Good luck

Also not to thread jack but just curious what do you guys use to get the bolts off the outer tie rod/toe links where they have the 7mm socket top that your suppose to hold while taking off the bolt. I can never get it off so I end up cutting it off everytime..

 

[milehighmikey]

The fact that you are having this problem indicates that the threads of the inner will be damaged quite badly when all is said and done. I had the same thing happen and had to use a lot of heat on the outer tie rod end to even get it to make one turn at a time between heatings. The end result will be that you will be able to thread the new outer tie rod end on easily, but that it will have a wobbly loose fit on the inner's threads. this will make it difficult to lock on the jamb nut without pushing the toe alignment out, and also provides a weak connection to the steering rack due to reduced thread height.

On the self locking feature of these pieces, I used 1/4" drive sockets on them as they tend to be able to stay on the self locking feature until there is just enough of the lock nut's influence on the need to use the self locking feature, and when the socket falls off, the threads have just become clear of the nylock insert's grip.