Turbo tie rod spacers help

billroth · billroth's Garage

Hi all,
I just had tie rods put on an 85 coupe and had a shop do the install and then an alignment. I purchased the parts intending to put them on myself but ran out of time so gave the shop my parts bags from Pelican and away we went.

Go the car back and it seemed a bit more responsive but who knows. I did notice in the wheel well a scuff wear one would expect to see tire rub. I thought maybe it was there before but was not sure. I have stock 6 and 7" Fuchs on with SO2's, stock sizes.

Then came the big uh oh. TIdying up the garage, I found a bag with the two spacers in it. I am going to call the shop and ask if they install another set of spacers but I doubt it. I didn't see them on the invoice.

I have two questions. Can I track it this weekend? Just a couple of hours planned on a Friday night, not the whole weekend.

Second question. Can I just remove the tie rod from the rack end and put them in, followed by another #$@#$# alignment or do I need to redo the install from scratch?

Thanks,
Lawrence

ruby911 · ruby911's Garage

Since you reference spacers, I assume you had turbo tire rods put in. You are not going to be able to remove the inner portion of the tierod without removing the outer portion from the steering arm (maybe you can if they are not turbo tie rods, you would have to uncsrew the inner adjustment until it came apart, but I am not sure you would have enought to hold on to to loosen the inner section attached to the steering rack). Once you remove it and install the spacers (assuming they are not already there), you will, in effect, have increased the length of the tierod, creating toe in. Long story short, sounds like you might be starting over.

As far as tracking the car, I am not sure if it is a problem, but it would be a bigger gamble than I (personally) would want to take.

billroth · billroth's Garage

Thanks Ruby. They are turbo tie rods.

What waste of money. My fault I guess.

ruby911 · ruby911's Garage

Double check with the shop before you do anything. My understanding (which may be wrong) is the turbo tie rods will not seat all the way on the steering wrack without those spacers. I would think that the shop would notice this. Good luck.

billroth · billroth's Garage

Well since I am going to have to start over again, while I'm in there...?

Would it be worth doing something else? New shocks? New ball joints?

Bushings looked OK last time I looked.

ruby911 · ruby911's Garage

Double check with the shop before you do anything. My understanding (which may be wrong) is the shoulder on the turbo tie rods will not seat all the way on the steering rack without those spacers (the threaded bolt will bottom out). I would think that the shop would notice this. Good luck.

ruby911 · ruby911's Garage

The tierod job does not invlove touching the shocks or ball joints - so I would only replace them if they were showing symptoms of being worn out.

uwanna · 05-03-2010, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruby911

Double check with the shop before you do anything. My understanding (which may be wrong) is the shoulder on the turbo tie rods will not seat all the way on the steering rack without those spacers (the threaded bolt will bottom out). I would think that the shop would notice this. Good luck.

I agree with ruby911's thoughts on the spacers, but you might want to peruse to post below. He was able to seat the turbo rod inner ends tight up against the steering rack end on his install without spacers. If the threads on the inner ends are too long, they will bottom out inside the rack and leave a gap between the rod end and the rack. Perhaps you could turn the wheel all the way to one side, then pop off the inner end of the boot, and look for a gap between the inner rod end and the rack.

How long to install Turbo Tie Rods?