[Otter74]

I spent some time under the car tonight looking at what was there and measuring things. Not surprisingly all parts were there, as there’s nowhere for them to go. The inner rubber ring was broken and was loose. The outer rubber ring was fine. The star ring was hiding out next to the rack stop at the inner tie rod and it’s awfully hard to fish it out with a pick but it appears to not even be broken, which makes it a mystery how this whole assembly came apart. I measured the rings with calipers so that I can find something from McMaster-Carr. They appear to be 40.25mm OD, 34mm ID, 7mm wide. Fit of the assembly to the rack housing is not important as only the rubber rings fit against it (the stepped section of the middle of the sleeve is a smaller diameter.) Critical dimensions all live on the sleeve and that is intact. So I think if I remove the inner tie rod put new rubber rings on the sleeve and use a new star “nut”, I should be good. New parts in, pack some more EP moly grease in there (how much should there be?)

I think 32mm is the size of a bottom bracket wrench for bikes and I’ve got one of those.

Do I need to take the outer tie rod end off the tie rod to get the boot off before I can remove the inner tie rod? Or can i just work it back along the tie rod? I’d rather not mess with the outer tie rod end.

Also, what’s the easiest way to separate the outer tie rod end? I tend to only use pickle forks when the old end is bad, since they destroy boots. I can sometimes separate the taper on a joint by beating on the steering arm sideways with a sledge, but sometimes that doesn’t work.