I tried to put some recent threads about tie rod ends and steering rack boots
to work this past weekend. One of the boots was broken so I backed steering
rod out of tie rod end as described recently. Managed to get end of oil can
hose in boot to add 90w. Was putting wheel back on and it seemed to have a
wobble attributable to tie rod end. Oh well went to replace it since I had a
"nice" pair on hand with the grease nipples in them. Went ahead and did both
sides.
Finished up and time for test spin. Backed out of drive seeminly Ok and then
heard terrible noise and wheels seemed to be locked up. The tie rod ends had
a bigger head with small protrusions on each side that were digging into the
inside of my minilites. Barely got it back into drive and then changed back
to old tie rod ends.
Fortunately rims are ok after grinding off rough metal from gouges. Test
drove today with old tie rod ends. Will be ok til I get new ones this week.
Will have to go through complete alignment process as I wasn't exactly
careful about marking rods during my panic in driveway. I did take a front
measurement prior to starting entire process.
Lesson-Check to see wheels still spin after you put it all back together.
Those slightly different ends may have been ok with different rims but not
with mine.
robmgb
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