Turbo tie rod question

[slodave]

Hi,

I have been replacing all of my shocks and while the car has been off the ground I decided to replace the tie rods. I have the book from Wayne. He says that after the old tie rod is loose, bend it down and use the rod as a lever. I tried and had no luck. The left is very well secured. I sprayed some liquid wrench in there and I hope it helps for tomorrow. Wayne also mentioned stinking a screw driver in to the "hollow tube" to get more leverage. It seems to me that this would prevent one from comparing the old rod with the new in order to set the new tie rod to the right length. I am planning to get the car aligned after this, but don't want excessive toe in/out for the ride over to TRE.

I don't have a lift for the car, any ideas/help on getting the old tie rods loose?

BTW, I don't have a pickle fork, but I figured I could tap the top of the old rod bolt with a hammer, which I did and the rod fell right out of the suspension strut.

Thanks!!!


Dave

[wswilburn]

I think I used a pipe wrench on mine. A great tool for things you don't mind destroying!

[slodave]

Originally posted by wswilburn
I think I used a pipe wrench on mine. A great tool for things you don't mind destroying!

Did you grab the u-joint with the pipe wrench? Seems like a tight fit. Should I remove the sway bar?

Thanks!

Dave

[Cipotifoso]

Do a search on this topic - you'll find a lot of posts by others that had the same problems as you are having now. One of the steps that got left out in Wayne's book is the loosening of a spanner locknut that resides under the rubber cover. If you knock this loose with a punch and hammer, the rod will spin out real easy.

[450knotOffice]

Dave, I had the same problem that you had and ended up doing a search for a good method to use. I ended up using a method that "Zeke" recommended.

Here's a quote from my thread detailing my suspension overhaul last Spring:

Next step, attempt to unscrew the other end from the steering rack. Wayne makes it sound so easy in his 101 Projects book. It's not. Back to the search function of this board to try to find another method. As per usual, Milt, AKA Zeke, had the best idea. He suggested taking a cold punch, placing it into one of the notches in the spacer that screws into the steering rack shaft and hitting it with a hammer to get it to turn initially. That spacer acts as a locknut of sorts, and a few wacks with the hammer had it loose. After that the tie rod screwed right out. Piece of cake. I repeated the task on the other side with ease.

Of course, you have to get on your back and underneath the car and basically be looking straight up at the steering rack in the area where the tie attaches to the rack. Reach in there with your punch and hammer and place the punch into one of the notches in the spacer between the rack and tie rod. Make sure you knock the spacer in the correct direction to loosen it.

Let us know how it works out.

[slodave]

Hi,

Thank you Cipotifoso and 450knotOffice, I have done a few searches to try and prep for this, but did not run into this. I will give another try tomorrow. I'm sure it'll go well thanks to you both!

Dave

[Dixie]

I used a "pickle fork" for removing ball joints to break my old tie-rods loose. The opening fit perfectly. A short pipe over the fork handle allowed enough leverage to be applied.

Wayne's book makes the removal sound like it's going to be easy. But as with most suspension work, you need to apply a *lot* of brute force to get them out.

[slodave]

Hi,

Turbo tie rods installed. What a pain. Scott, thanks for the tip. Not much room to move, but I finally was able to break free both of those lock nuts. The install was pretty straight forward.

Alignment and balance at the end of the week. Next project is easy and clean.



Dave

Right tie rod installed.

[livi]

Congrats on a great job! A job I am planning too. Have the ttr in a box since last fall. No time so far.

Please let us know how the steering feeling turns out. There has been a lot of reports, some very positive. Some authors have reported no significant change.

I wanna know before getting to work on mine.

[slodave]

Originally posted by livi
Congrats on a great job! A job I am planning too. Have the ttr in a box since last fall. No time so far.

Please let us know how the steering feeling turns out. There has been a lot of reports, some very positive. Some authors have reported no significant change.

I wanna know before getting to work on mine.

Hi Markus,

First thoughts are that the steering is more responsive. The real test will be after the alignment. I think that the front tires are towing out at the moment. It was hard to compare the length of the old rod to the new. I did do a number of figure 8's on the tarmac and all handled very well.

My car was until now completely original regarding suspension. I still need to replace all rubber bushings, but the car does feel 'renewed'.

If you have the parts, then go for it.

Dave

[slodave]

I should add that in my case, I had to remove thet sway bar from the right side. I could not get a good angle to loosen the lock nut/spacer. Getting the sway bar back in was another feat. I finally resorted to grabbing the shock with both hands while using my feet to push the sway bar back into the wishbone.

Dave

[IROC]

I installed these tie rods onto my car this weekend also. For me, the hardest part was getting the rubber boots on. :>) I have the steering rack spacers installed and that leaves precious little room above the rack to install the boots.

Pretty easy job in all. Took me about three hours.

Mike

[safe]

I did mine recently and besides having a little trouble getting the left tie rod out of the steering arm it was a breeze!! But I had my steering rack on the bench so maybe it doesn't count