Anyone upgraded to tie rod ends?

[sweater914]

looking at the parts in the catalogue, wayne's really pushing buying the tie rod end puller and special wrench, can you do without them?

[echocanyons]

I think youmean turbo tie rod ends.

I have not done this but I am sure there is someone on this board tha has.


Regards,

Kelly

[piperpilotduane]

I use the old tuning fork tool with a hammer. It works fine. If you just replace the ends, be shure that the supplier sends you one RH thread and one LH thread. They are different.
I have replaced a few for other people, but on my two personal porsche's I went with turbo tie rods. The difference is incredable.
I highly recomend them if your car is a keeper.

The special wrench is good because of the confined work area, but you can use a chisel to break the rod loose and remove it with a big pair of channel-lock pliers. When you break it loose with a chisel they usually screw off easily. Good luck!


P.S. the washers with the turbo rods go at the rack. Not the rack mount. They are not a bonus bump stear washer. The rods will screw into the rack and bottom out. You cannot tighten them correctly without the washers. When you put them on, I use some Med. strength locktite. I use large chanel-locks to re-install.

The turbo rods are square at the rack where the reg. are round with 4 indentions for the special wrench. If you are going to do alot of them buy the tools. If not, take your time and you can use my methods.

[Eat-um-up]

I upgraded my 914 to turbo tierod ends. Boy am i glad i did!!! the car rides sooo much better!! i bought my kit out of German Parts and Restoration (before i knew of pelican)
Oh and by the way, sadly my 914 is for sale. i cant keep her any longer

[sweater914]

yeah, i ment turbo tie rods, the wrenchs would be nice to have laying around, but for a one time event?, thanks duane, i'll just buy the parts

[odie]

I'd really look at your old tie rods first. If they are in good shape then I wouldn't bother replacing them. I upgraded my car and I saw no improvement. I can only guess that my old tie rods were in good shape.

Upgrade only if the old part is wore out.

[Jim Smolka]

You might be able to rent the tool from Auto Zone for free.

I strongly recommend purchasing the Turbo Tie-Rod Ends.
The difference is worth the $$$$

[sweater914]

well, let's see the car has been abused(raped is more like it) for about 20 years, documents are mediocre at best, the odometer stopped at a hair over 100000 miles, i'm trying to build a history for the car, the steering wheel shakes like a massager when i'm driving, alignment and wheel balance aside, thanks everybody

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

He had an 80 SC. His tie-rod ends were in bad shape, so he installed the turbo ones. A world of difference--absolutely night and day.

So he installed a pair in his girlfriend's 81 SC. The tie-rod ends on her car were in good shape, but he figured it would be a significant upgrade anyway. Nope--there was almost no difference.

The lesson I took away from that: If yours are in good shape, leave them alone.

He also had to take a grinder to a cheapie open-end wrench to make it thinner. He said that was the only way he could get the new parts on, because space was so limited.

I haven't done this job myself, just passing along some stuff I've learned second-hand.

--DD

[sweater914]

dave could you get his girlfriends number? to many tests, exams, and check rides

[Jim Chambers]

Anyone suggest a simple way to check condition of tie rods?
Grab with channel locks? Check for what kind of movement?
What defines ok vs. bad?

[campbellcj]

My view on turbo tie rods is that they're a must-do if you already have the front suspension apart and are already doing a re-alignment and so forth.

Otherwise, I personally wouldn't bother unless you actually have a problem. The reduction in "slop" and improvement in steering feel is noticable, but definitely pretty subtle.

Just my $.02

[philinjax]

After banging and clanging on several tie rod ends using the
fork method, I ran accross this tool. It has been easy ever since.

http://images.prosperpoint.com/1070/54506-79.jpg

I think I bought this from JCWhitney.

Phil

[Dave Bell]

What Chris Campbell said -

I would add, if you are doing brake stuff and messing with the master cylinder, that is a good time also, because having the drivers side tie rod out makes access to the master cylinder area easier also.

I took a standard open end wrench and ground it down flatter on a grinding wheel to generate the speciality wrench. It was a night and the kids loved watching the sparks and doing a little grinding themselves.


- Dave

[sweater914]

i like sparks!!, you can always return a craftsman, i just finished screwing with brakes and rotors, replaced the right front, new pads, SS brake lines, rebuilt the rear calipers, i'll probably take the left front off to re-grease bearings, the master cylinder can probably wait with a couple prayers to the Almighty