[Shotimes] Outer Tie Rod Replacement?

[Ron Childs]

Bruce-

The only thing outer tie rods may affect is your toe.
If you count the turns it takes to remove the old ones
and put the replacements on the same number, your toe
in/out most likely will be unchanged from when it was
aligned with good rod ends. You can check your toe
with a metal tape measure. Duct tape the end of a
Stanley tape measure into the tread on a front tire
and measure across to the same (or any, I guess) tread
on the other front tire. Then do the same measurement
on the rear side of the tires. The difference is
double your toe. e.g. if you get 60.5 inches across
the front of the tires and 60.0 across the rear, you
have 1/4" toe out. 
It can be adjusted easily when you install the tie
rods by loostening the jam nuts and turning the center
section of the tie rod. You can also center your
steering wheel if it needs it. No alignment shop
necessary.

-Ron Childs   '91

--- Bruce Malachuk <bmalach1@nycap.rr.com> wrote:
> Is it possible to replace the outer tie rods on my
> SHO without having to get
> an alignment? My car is in pretty decent alignment
> right now, and I'm planning
> a Koni/Intrax setup with camber plates in about 2
> months, so I know I'll need
> an alignment then. But right now I have a little
> looseness in the steering and
> my outer tie rods are beginning to make some noise.
> I've replace the tie rod
> end on my 95 SE (well Midas did) and that same
> squeak went away, but it also
> lightened my wallet by an extra $40 for the front
> alignment.
> 
> The parts are cheap via rockauto, and the MOOG ones
> have a grease fitting on
> them which is good. I would think that if I was to
> do this with the wheels on
> the ground there must be some way to change them
> without messing up the
> alignment, right?
> 
> Bruce
> 94 Opal Frost MTX
> 94 Deep Emerald Green ATX - w/90k gonna be parted
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