Tie rod end replacement failure

[Metalhed]

Tried to put two new tie rod ends on the 94 PU. Failed. Drivers side castle nut and stud spin freely. Passenger side nut came off fine, just cant get it to pop out of the steering arm. I gave up, no sense spending tons of time on it.

I have 4 brand new tires going on tomorrow and supposed to get an alignment. Hoping that Goodyear has enough time to put the tie rods on.
They wont install customer purchased parts, so I have to return my parts, just to have them buy them for me.

This truck has fought us at every turn.

One of the redeeming factors== truck got 26 mpg the other day. Thats what $4000 of new motor gets you

[xaza]

that's nice, I spent $4K on my motor and I get 7 mpg :lmao:

[Brian]

Can anything be done to keep the stud from spinning? Just replace it? Does it mean it's worn out?

[Metalhed]

Tie rods are hammered. Boots are ripped. They have to be replaced. Probably going to use the smoke wrench to get the castle nut off, and then just use a puller to get it out of the steering arm.
I took it to a place to have the tires put on and the outer tie rods replaced. The could not get the sleeves to budge, even with heat and an 5 foot breaker bar. So going to make it easy and replace the inner and outer tie rods, along with new adjusting sleeves. Should fix everything. We lowered the torsion bars about 2 inches to help lessen the angle on the new parts. New parts, an alignment and new tires, truck is ready!!!! Well it will be ready monday afternoon, after they finish working on it.

I dont feel too defeated after hearing this. Most chassis related work/parts have been rust welded to the truck and cause us a ton of extra work. Soon all of the parts will be replaced.

[Brad]

Pickle fork. Most likely rentable at a parts store. HF on west colfax may sell one.

Yep: http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=Pickle+fork

You can insert it and tap it in place to create tension on the ball joint allowing you to remove the nut. :thumb:

[Hypoid]

If I want to save the tie rod for re-use, I'll put a bottle jack on it to push the stud into the hole. Usually, that creates enough of an interference fit to hold the stud, while removing the nut. After that, it's a 75% chance I don't have to use a puller to get the stud to pop out.