Today, what we're installing is a set of Fleece tie rod sleeves. This is part number FPE-TIERODSLEEVES.
We offer several different tie rod sleeves, honestly, on the website. Fleece is a really,
really nice set. So we're going to use Fleece today, my old buddies out of Indiana there.
Want to show you everything about this install, because this is a really common install, and
I'm sure some of you don't do it because you're worried about it or you'll pay somebody to
do it. But really anybody can do this job, honestly.
What are you going to need for the install? A few different wrenches. A 3/8 inch wrench.
I've got a 13 metric here, 21 metric, 22 metric, 3/4, 13/16. I've got another 10 and 11 double
side there that I've used, too. Really, the inner and the outer and the inner tie rod,
the manufacturer, it just depends on who makes them. Some of them could be more metric than
standard. It just depends.
So we're going to go ahead and get started. The first thing that you're going to want
to do on your install is you're going to want to loosen up this jam nut right here. This
jam nut is actually what keeps the outer tie rod from being able to screw up the rod. So
what we're going to do is we're going to loosen up that jam nut first. What you have to do
is you have to go up to the upper portion of the outer tie rod right here. There is
a hex portion of it, to where you can grab it with a 13 metric wrench, is really what
it takes. Just be careful not to round it off here.
So what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and loosen up the jam nut. Just like
that. We're just going to back the jam nut away from the outer tie rod. Now what we're
going to do is we're going to drop the tie rod section away, away from the bearing here.
So what we're going to do first is we're going after the top nut here, and it is a 21. Now,
if you turn it and your top portion turns, you can see right there, our top portion is
turning. That top portion is also hexed. So if the top portion of the tie rod turns on
you, it's hexed. It's 3/8. You can get a 3/8 wrench and hold it.
This will be a little bit time-consuming like this. If you put an impact on it and you can't
zip it off, if it wants to turn, you have to put a ... Excuse me. You have to put a
wrench on the top side, 3/8 wrench on the top side. I know this has got a shaft on it,
but all I'm doing is loosening up this top bolt.
All right. Now to
separate the tie rod from the steering knuckle. Actually that one just fell right out, which
is good for us. But if you have problems with your tie rod falling out of your steering
knuckle, what you want to do is, and you can find this, like this right here, the tie rod
in the steering knuckle right there. If you hit just the outside of the steering knuckle,
just like that, the tie rod will usually, after two or three good whacks, the tie rod
will fall right down.
So now what we've got is we've got our outer tie rod out here, and we want to be real careful
as to not change the distance, because what we're going to have to do is we're actually
going to have to count the number of threads out for this. Sorry, sit right there where
you can see it because you can see that outer tie rod is going to be very loose. So we can
just about screw it off-
All right. Once you have your tie rod separated from your steering knuckle, you have to actually,
and we didn't talk about this to start with, but when you actually go to do the job, you've
actually got to do it with the tire on the ground. If you try to jack the truck up, take
the tire off where you can see everything here, it puts pressure on the tie rod and
you actually can't get it loose from the steering knuckle. So our suggestion is to drop the
tie rod with the truck on the ground. That way, then the tie rod's loose. Then what we
like to do, is we like jack the truck up to be able to turn the wheel where we want it.
Then we can turn the wheel, and our outer tie rod in, we can actually screw off.
So now when you do this job, you're going to want to get the truck aligned. But for
right now, for what we're going to do to get it close, is we're going to count the number
of turns that come off of this inner tire rod ... count the number of turns and that's
where we're going to put our sleeve back on. Our jam nut's actually going to come off,
but we'll show you. So what we want to do is we want to count our number of turns. There's
one, two. There's three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19. It's getting ready to go. So 19 turns, and that's got our outer tie
rod end off.
So now we're going to take our jam nut off. Now we're ready to install our Fleece sleeve.
All right, now that you're going back on with your Fleece sleeve, what you want to do is
you want your threaded end will go to the outside of the outer ti, rod sleeve. You're
just going to go ahead and thread this up on the tie rod. You can see the difference
in the color on the threads will actually show you where you need to be. Now you want
to try to keep it stable as you can. All right.
Then your sleeve is actually going to serve as your jam nut now. So that's about where
we need to be. So now what we're going to do is we're going to screw our outer tie rod
on, And we need to go 19 turns. There's one, two, three, four. That's five, six, seven,
eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. There's 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. There's 19. Now that's 19. That's
the same distance as the tie rod I took off. So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to
turn my sleeve out to meet it. Once we do that, that's pretty much your completed assembly
for your tie rod sleeves right there.
So you can see what that allows the tie rod to do itself, is it actually allows the tie
rod to flex just a little bit inside the sleeve, but it's not going to let it flex to a point
to where it can actually break or shear. So that's going to serve ... The sleeve itself
is actually going to serve as our jam nuts. We don't have to put our jam nut back on there,
and that's straight. So now what we're going to do is we're actually going to pull, bring
our tire back around and just watch for clearance. Now, what we'll do is we'll actually set the
truck back down. That'll give us the clearance to be able to put our tie rod back in our
steering nut-
Okay. Now we've got our truck back on the ground. We've got our tie rod back in our
steering knuckle. We've got the weight back on the tire. What we're going to do is we're
going to put our nut back on top of our tie rod. All right, we're going to go ahead and
tighten it back down, or we're going to just go and give it a couple of turns here. Get
it started, the 21. Get it started until the tie rod itself starts turning.
Now what we want to do is we want to come out, and we're going to go to the bar, to
the tie rod itself, the outer tie rod itself. What we're going to do is we're going to set
the sleeve and tighten it down. So there's a flat spot on the outside of the outer tie
rod. It's 13/16 is what I'm using there. The sleeve itself is an inch sleeve, is an inch
to tighten up the sleeve. So what we're going to do is we're going to sit that, get it tight.
Okay.
All right. Now we're going to tighten up our top ... of our ball of our tie rod. So this
will take just a second. We'll fast forward through this. Good. Now that we have everything
tightened up, that completes our install. What we're going to do now is we're going
to go back and we're going to grease our outer tie rod and our inner tie rod. There's a grease
fitting right up here. So that completes our install of our Fleece tie rod sleeves. If
you have questions on this install or any other install, just let us know. Thank you.