Hey guys Chris fix here and today I am going to show you how to replace the tie-rod ends
both the outside and the inside tie rod ends
very important for your steering and for your toe
alignment so I am going to show you how to do that now, so there is your tie rod
you can see I can move this with my hand, it is very old
300,000 miles will do that to it. It is amazing they made it that far
so here are all of the tools you are going to use for this job. You need
a couple wrenches, screwdrivers, flathead screwdrivers
some lock tight thread glue
a torque wrench, a breaker bar, hammer, rubber mallet, needle nose plyers
and a grease gun and the new tie rod
inside and outside. You will also need an inner tie-rod tool
which is this right here. You can rent this for free Autozone or Pepboys or
whatever the main part stores you use.
So what you are going to do is take your needle nose plyers
and open up the cotter pin so that it is straight.
And once the cotter pin is straight, grab the other side
and start pulling it out.
there we go
one cotter pin pulled out.
Now you can put a 19mm or 3/4 ratchet or wrench on this.
A nice long break a bar will help.
Once you break it loose, use your ratchet
and take the castle nut off.
now there's a tool that you can use that goes in here and pry's this up, but
what I am going to do is take this castle nut and I'm gonna flip it over
so screw it in this way.
Good! Now I am going to take a hammer, I'll use a rubber mallet just to be safe
and I will pop it up maybe up
[Metallic Hammering Noise]
There we go.
The tie rod end is out. Now this is the interesting part
there's a nut here that they use for your alignment
because this affects your alignment.
What you want to do is put your tie rod in and now we can unscrew this nut.
You just want to break that loose like that and now we can take this out and
you can see this spins freely... From the bottom here
that's that the bottom which is pointing down, you wanna take this
and you want to spin it.
So that is one, two... and you want to count how many spins it takes to get this off.
three, four, five, six...
18, 19... So twenty spins total,
it took me 20 spins you get this off and when you put the new one on
you want to count twenty spins and the reason why is it that your alignemnt
isn't completely out of alignment. You are still gonna have to get the car aligned
after you change this
but at least your alignment wont be so bad that it's dangerous to drive
so you could see this moves around very easily and has a little bit of play inside and outside
so the inner tie rod end also needs to be changed, but we were going to do that anyway
Now you can see, so the tie rod end works by steering the car when you turn the steering wheel
it turns this which allows the car's
wheel to turn
it goes all the way up into here, and now there is a boot here
and you want to use a pliers to get this off and there's also
a another one these except you have to break the clamp with a screwdriver,
and I will show you that now.
but that is all the way in the back
so for this one, you just get the
the same needle nose as before
squeeze it and pull it out.
all this is, is a little clamp to keep the boot on.
Now little trick here is to use a screwdriver a flat head
and just bend this up a little bit. Not too much because we are re-using the boots
you just want to get it under here so we can spray some silicone or grease
to make it slide off easier
Now we just go in here, with a flathead screwdriver,
carefully, without breaking the boot it's like that
just like that... You see how the boot is up... get your WD40 or whatever
some type of grease or silicone, which is what I am using
and just spray it in there.
and that will make the boot come off a lot easier because surprisingly, the boot is on there tight.
the next thing we are going to do
you see that clip right down there
there is a clip right there, and what you are going to do is push the screwdriver in and turn the screw driver to open the clip
it's hard to see but I think you will get the idea when I do it.
You just get the screwdriver in there
and turn... [clicks open] and you can see
it opened up, and now we can take the boot off.
[Spray]
OK, unscrew this nut here so we can take the boot off.
take the bolt off, slide off your clamp,
now take your bellows boot off
good, so we're gonna wanna quickly inspect this to make sure there are no cracks
looks good, so when we're installing it there is this right here
that's gonna slide over the tube in there
its going to slide over that tube which connects to the other tie rod on the other side of the car
it allows for venting... so you can see the tube on the top right and then you could
see the
inside tie rod right there with its ball joint that is
very loose, so now we're going to take that out.
so here is the actual tie rod
the inside tie rod
and I just want to show you what is going to happen so that you completely understand this.
so here is your adapter
your adapter is going to fit on here, just like that.
So when you turn the tie rod too, it grabs the end and turns it
otherwise it would be hard to get a wrench on here. You can do it you just have to see if you have
access. The other thing to remember is that there's sometimes a pin in this
so you have to take that pin out and that is what I am going to go check for now.
You can see on this tie rod end there is a pin right here and this has to come off
so you take a flat-head screwdriver
you get underneith it, and you pry it out.
you could see I'm just prying this up
If you can't get your screwdriver under here that easy, you could use a hammer and the screwdriver
and just get it to indent a little bit. So you could see
I'm almost ready to just knock this thing out
Knocked it right out. So now we can unscrew this.
Just like I showed you, your adapter piece goes right on top just like that.
take your tie rod tool
slide it in
and then you put your ratchet on there.
Once you break it loose like that
this thing should come right out, and if it is not coming out easily
remember there's that pin in there that needs to come out first
here are the two tie rods side by side
the next thing you are going to do is make sure they are the same size
the new one is a little bit longer
so that is going to affect the toe but
we're getting an alignment anyway so doesn't matter. Now you can see
I can move this really easily, that is the old one
a single finger can move it around
the new one... I cant even move it
it'll have to be on the car for me to move it. I'm going to get some blue thread lock
this is the removable type and I am going to put a little inside here
Just like so... Now lets install the new tie rod.
never took the old clamp out
the clamp you have to break, take that out.
here is the pin
it's not really reusable
take our new tie rod
and just tighten it by hand
Once you cannot tighten it by hand anymore,
get your tie rod tool
put it over the tie rod
slide it on
then get your torque wrench,
for my vehicle it says torque to 66 to 74ft-lbs of torque
I am going to torque it to 70ft-lbs
Once you torque it, you are set.
I am under the car and you can see the hole for the pin.
That is where you push the pin in... I put a screwdriver head against the pin
like this... and then I used a hammer to lightly tap it in.
and now it's all the way in.
So remember before I was talking about the clip
that is a sacrificial clip that holds on the boot that you put your screwdriver in here
and you twist and the clip opens up, well, it is only a one use clip
so either you get a new one, which they're hard to find,
but one temporary solution is to use zip-ties
I went to go get a bellows boot kit to see if it comes with new clips and
and it came with zip ties
so although it sounds kinda cheap, the boot doesn't really move
very much so it's okay to use a zip-tie... It is not a permanent solution like this metal clip
because a zip tie will eventually get
brittle but until you can find a metal clip
zip ties are a good way to go, and that is what I will use.
You can also use stainless steel hose clamps with the nut that tightens it down
The hose clamps are hard to find that are narrow enough to fit the boot.
so zip ties work nicely in this situation.
Now we are going to put the new boot on.
You see that at the end of my screwdriver?
There is that tube and you want to make sure you push
this into that tube... So I actually tightened up the zip ties
first up on the the boot, now I am going to slide the boot in.
so now you just tighten the zip ties after you push the boot all the way on
good
Now we take our clamp, and bring it up
Put it on just like that and we are done with the boot.
so here is the new tie rod end
we can see the new is nice and sturdy
the old one moves really easily. It comes with all the accessories
the screw in the top, a pin, and a nut. So they give you a new nut
but it's kinda small, so I will use the old one because it's thicker.
has more thread on it so it will lock better.
Just screw that old nut back on...
It took me 20 spins to get this
off so I will put it back on with 20 spins.
It is threaded so we will start counting
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ,7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13...
14, 15,
16, 17, 18,
19, 20... OK
20 spins, face it down. Now will tighten our nut up here.
We want the nut to push against
the new tie rod end.
This will keep it from moving.
I am going to put the grease valve on. Just screw it in by hand first.
Now I will use a 5/16 inch wrench
And just snug it down.
You dont want to tighten this too much.
Just enough, and that is good.
Now we will put this into the knuckle.
Line it up...
push it through...
Get your new castle nut and screw it on.
That is how it should look.
I set the torque to 46ft-lbs
And tighten it until it clicks...
[Click]
when it clicks once, you do it again and in that statement
[Click]
And then that is tight enough.
we will now take our cotter pin and send it though the hole.
good
Now just bend the cotter pin around the castle nut
Like so
Now we're gonna lube this up
Put the grease gun on there and pump it with grease.
you can see the rubber expanding
and once it expands like that, that means you have enough grease in there
and you just finish the job!
You just changed the inner and outter tie rod ends!
Now go get your car aligned.
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