When I took our '95 SE in for a wheel alignment I was told that the right tie rod end was frozen and that the front end couldn't be aligned. At 165K miles the front end probably needs some renewing anyway so this wasn't a surprise. I went to Autozone, got the part, but when I got the car up on ramps, I can't remove the frozen part. Sears and Pep Boys won't replace it, do you have to remove the rack and pinion to replace it? Is this a specialty shop or dealer repair needing a special wrench, etc... to avoid removing the rack and pinion?

Are you trying to remove the inner or outer tie rod end?

Theres no real special tools needed to do the outers. The inners will need a special wrench that you can 'borrow' from the parts stores. Both can be done on the car and without removing the rack thou removing the rack is the preferred method.

If your is really frozen you just might need to replace all 3 peices; inner, outer, and connector.

No matter which, do not get Autozone brand replacement parts. I did both outter and a rt inner at 140kmiles on my wifes olds Then again at 160k. Meanwhile the driverside inner is still fine at 168k and all original. Lesson learned.

there is no tie rod sleeve on our cars. just the inner and outer tie rods.

have you tried heat with a rust catylist. i always let rusty stuff soak in pb blaster for atleast 5 min. the i also spray it with this cable/chain lube. and if that doesnt work, i repeat the blaster and then pull out the old propane torch.


also, the inner can be hard to get a grip on. so you may use multiple wrenches. ive had up to 3 open end wrenches on my inner tie rod, to break it loose.

and iirc, the inner needs a 13 mm (or 3). and a 22mm for the outer

Yes, to me it'* an understatement to say that the inner can be hard to get a grip on. I will try the PB Blaster and the propane torch. There just isn't much to grab onto with the wrench. Are you using one of the wrenches as a spacer to keep the other two in position? 22mm is one of those odd sizes to find in a flare nut or open end wrench.

-sp4149

one 22 mm, regular open end wrench will be fine for the outer.

but, for the inner i meant 2-3, 13mm open end wrenches on the "post" of the inner". but a line nut wrench would be better if you have a 13mm.

you can try to use more than one set of vise-grip'* too.

did you look into the tool to remove the inner from the rack?


edit- this is what i mean.

Pipe wrenched worked just fine for me (for where you show the 3 wrenches) since I didn't care about damaging the inner.

Thanks for correcting the sleeve mis-comment. I must have mixed it up with one of the other cars. :(

yeah, a pipe wrench would probably grip pretty good.

[quote="

did you look into the tool to remove the inner from the rack?


[/quote

Not yet. What is the tool called?

[quote=sp4149][quote="

did you look into the tool to remove the inner from the rack?


[/quote

Not yet. What is the tool called?[/quote]

inner tie rod tool.


not bein a smart azz, that all its called.



*edit, heres one on ebay. auto zone has one in their tool loaners
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lisle...spagenameZWDVW