Tie Rod End wont budge

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TurtleAdventure

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I am trying to replace the tie rod ends on my 98. They will not budge. Any tips on how to get these things off.

To be more specific. I cant turn them to spin them out. I have them off the ball joint side. I just cant turn them out of the inner tie rods.
 
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TurtleAdventure said:
I am trying to replace the tie rod ends on my 98. They will not budge. Any tips on how to get these things off.

To be more specific. I cant turn them to spin them out. I have them off the ball joint side. I just cant turn them out of the inner tie rods.
Click to expand...

I had to heat up one of mine with a torch, move the inner tie rod boot as far away as you can use something to hold it back and cover with wet rags to stop it from melting from the heat.

I use oxy/acetylene but a small plumbing torch with propane or map gas may work too....
 
I'm assuming you're dealing with rust based off where you live. Like was said above, a little heat wouldn't hurt from a small plumbing torch you can buy at any hardware store.

Have you tried using some PB Blaster?

If it's really stuck on there due to rust, you'll need plenty of leverage to break the lock nut free. If you're using big wrenches and you still can't break it free, a cheater bar might be in order. Just be careful and make sure you're getting a good bight with the wrenches. You don't want to round off the lock nut or round off the inner tie rod (aka Rack End).
 
50/50 mix of acetone and atf trans fluid is the best. Soak them over night and try again. Dont bother with the spray crap you can buy, hands down better than PB blaster or liquid wrench.
 
JayRolla said:
50/50 mix of acetone and atf trans fluid is the best. Soak them over night and try again. Dont bother with the spray crap you can buy, hands down better than PB blaster or liquid wrench.
Click to expand...

Do you just mix this in a spray bottle for application?
 
JayRolla said:
50/50 mix of acetone and atf trans fluid is the best. Soak them over night and try again. Dont bother with the spray crap you can buy, hands down better than PB blaster or liquid wrench.
Click to expand...

PB blaster is the better of the spray stuff, wd-40 is a joke and liquid wrench is ok,, supposedly Krohl ? is good stuff, ,,,my opinions.... but like Jay mentioned above, that's my go to mix too when pb wont do it. Ive dumped that into a frozen/rusted tractor engine and after two days of it soaking, it broke free. let it soak some more, and it got the rings loosened up good enough that we ran that tractor for anthoer year before trading it for a bigger one.
 
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JayRolla said:
50/50 mix of acetone and atf trans fluid is the best. Soak them over night and try again. Dont bother with the spray crap you can buy, hands down better than PB blaster or liquid wrench.
Click to expand...

Awesome. I never heard of using that before. Ill will give a try.


As other have said with the heat. I have heated it up. Maybe I will a little more.
 
mtbtim said:
Do you just mix this in a spray bottle for application?
Click to expand...

I used one of those metal "make your spray can" things. The top comes off so you can add whatever liquid you want to it. You screw the top back on that has a schrader valve that pressurizes the can.

I also use the 50/50 ATF/Acetone mix and it works great. Popular mechanics (or one of those magazines) tested about a dozen rust penetrants and found the 50/50 mix to be the best by a landslide. Just make sure you shake it up real good before you use it because the two liquids like to separate.

It works great.
 
Did you did straighten out that metal tang?
It sits in between the inner tie rod and outter tie rod.
That metal tang is bent over one of the wrench flats to try to keep it from turning loose prematurely.
 
I had the same issue with one of mine this weekend, I'd recommend taking the whole tie rod out (inner too) and then trying to separate them off the car, or just replace the inner while it's all out.
 
I took two vise grips and clamped them as tight as I could on the nuts. I angled the outer vise grip so it was about 25° clockwise of the inner vise grip. I then took a c-clamp and attached it to the ends of the grips and started tightening the c-clamp so that it would force the outer vise grip to start to turn counter clockwise. Did it on both sides, it worked pretty well.
 
Oops:doh:, my bad. That lock washer is in between the itr and rack.
There are no lock washers between the itr and otr.

I second the motion to take the whole tie rod assembly out and try to work it loose on a bench to get a better wrench angle and torque.
 
JayRolla said:
50/50 mix of acetone and atf trans fluid is the best. Soak them over night and try again. Dont bother with the spray crap you can buy, hands down better than PB blaster or liquid wrench.
Click to expand...

^ This. I was tuned on this magical mixture 30 years ago by a marine/boat mechanic. Last month when I was replacing the other TRE's on my '01, they were both siezed up. No worries, I mixed up a fresh batch of the sauce in a squeeze bottle for dispensing acetone, got some on both sides of the jam nut and walked away. In the time it took me to walk across the shop, grab the MAPP cylinder and get back to the 'Yota, it was all that it needed. I put heat to the jam nut first, waited for the brown/rusty goop to ooze out of the threads then cracked off the jam nut. Repeated the process on the threads that go into the inner TRE. Literally 15 minutes per side to have everything completely freed up only using a vise grip and a big flare wrench to avoid boogering up the jam nut.
 
TurtleAdventure said:
I am trying to replace the tie rod ends on my 98. They will not budge. Any tips on how to get these things off.

To be more specific. I cant turn them to spin them out. I have them off the ball joint side. I just cant turn them out of the inner tie rods.
Click to expand...

Any luck yet? Just did these on my 99 same issue. After many failed attempts and basically heating it until it was almost glowing I ended up just taking it all apart by removing the inner. Ended up replacing inner and outer.. there was no getting them separated. Good luck!
 
99Runn3r said:
Any luck yet? Just did these on my 99 same issue. After many failed attempts and basically heating it until it was almost glowing I ended up just taking it all apart by removing the inner. Ended up replacing inner and outer.. there was no getting them separated. Good luck!
Click to expand...

No time until this weekend. I am thinking I might just remove the inner too. I really dont want to try to get that boot back on though. It seems like it will be a huge pain.
 
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