DIY toe in adjustment gone horribly wrong!!
03-26-2012, 07:20 PM
#11
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Just did this last night... Same thing happened to me. The part you need is called a tie rod sleeve, and I bought it at the dealer for $60. I didn't get any pics, but here is what you need to do. Before doing any of this, get a measurement of where your wheels are in relation to one another. Mine were 55.25" at the points where i measured. Yours will be different. It helps to soak everything the night before in penetrating oil of some kind the night before.
1. Jack up the driver's side of the vehicle and remove the wheel.
2. Remove the clamp that goes over the end of the tie rod.
3. Mine has a dual steering stabilizer held on by U bolts also over the tie rod, so i removed it too.
4. Unbolt the tie rod end itself. Your tie rod should move freely
5. Get a pipe wrench, vise grips, whatever, and start turning things out. The tie rod should come first.
6. Remove the broken collar of the tie rod sleeve, throw in the garbage.
7. Here is where luck comes in. Hopefully the collar broke off and left you enough thread sticking out of the tie rod to get a grip on it with your vise grips or pipe wrench. THAT PIECE STUCK IN YOUR TIE ROD HAS A REVERSE THREAD. Very important to remember.
8. Either it's out now, or you're fuming mad because you've warped it, and it won't turn. Either way, DON'T PANIC.
9. If you look at your tie rod, there are two slits one top, and one bottom. You can carefully cut the threaded portion of the sleeve in half via those two slits, using a hacksaw blade, recip saw, grinder, whatever. Your main goal here is to BE CAREFUL, and to NOT MAR THE THREADS on the inside of your tie rod. If you must cut it, the width of your cut should allow you to wiggle it out of there without too much hassle.
10. Once you have that piece out, coat the inside of the tie rod, the threads on the tie rod end, and the threaded potion of the new sleeve in anti-seize, and start turning things back together. Try to get it as close as possible to your original measurements.
11. Visit an alignment shop ASAP. Your "pretty close" on your measuring tape is a mile out on an alignment machine
Whole job shouldn't be more than an couple of hours. Hope this helps out a little!
1. Jack up the driver's side of the vehicle and remove the wheel.
2. Remove the clamp that goes over the end of the tie rod.
3. Mine has a dual steering stabilizer held on by U bolts also over the tie rod, so i removed it too.
4. Unbolt the tie rod end itself. Your tie rod should move freely
5. Get a pipe wrench, vise grips, whatever, and start turning things out. The tie rod should come first.
6. Remove the broken collar of the tie rod sleeve, throw in the garbage.
7. Here is where luck comes in. Hopefully the collar broke off and left you enough thread sticking out of the tie rod to get a grip on it with your vise grips or pipe wrench. THAT PIECE STUCK IN YOUR TIE ROD HAS A REVERSE THREAD. Very important to remember.
8. Either it's out now, or you're fuming mad because you've warped it, and it won't turn. Either way, DON'T PANIC.
9. If you look at your tie rod, there are two slits one top, and one bottom. You can carefully cut the threaded portion of the sleeve in half via those two slits, using a hacksaw blade, recip saw, grinder, whatever. Your main goal here is to BE CAREFUL, and to NOT MAR THE THREADS on the inside of your tie rod. If you must cut it, the width of your cut should allow you to wiggle it out of there without too much hassle.
10. Once you have that piece out, coat the inside of the tie rod, the threads on the tie rod end, and the threaded potion of the new sleeve in anti-seize, and start turning things back together. Try to get it as close as possible to your original measurements.
11. Visit an alignment shop ASAP. Your "pretty close" on your measuring tape is a mile out on an alignment machine
Whole job shouldn't be more than an couple of hours. Hope this helps out a little!
I'm gonna tackle this as soon as my Quadratech shipment arrives.
03-27-2012, 03:38 AM
#13
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BINGO! the factory tierod is super thin and bends bouncing over potholes, check out Rockrawler's or the the Currieone much better options IMO. The newest Currie tierod is actually a WHOLE lot better than their previous version.
09-13-2012, 01:41 PM
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Also to remove your tie rod ends with out a pickle fork. loosen the nut on the tie rod end unless 4-6 threads are holding it on. Take a bfh and hit the knuckle where the tie rod end passes though. The harmonics will make the tie rod end drop out after a few hits.