Bad inner tie rod

[cordes]

I was going through the daytona for SDAC and discovered that the pass side inner tie rod is not in very good shape. It allows a ton of movement and that won't help when I go for an alignment soon.


What's the best course of action here?

Just replace the whole rack; who should I go through for it?

Can I just replace the inner piece and be done with it?

Should I just drop the K frame?

[turbovanman²]

Just replace the tie rod but you most likely will need the proper tool unless you drop the K-member.

[black86glhs]

Brian, you can get an inner tie rod tool from a parts store and just replace it. Also, like Simon said, you could drop the k-frame and then get access to it without need for the tool. Replacing them is easy.

[shackwrrr]

just the tie rod

If the rack has a lifetime warranty (like most) and an inner tie rod goes out then you have to take the whole thing out again for warranty

[cordes]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll just try and do it on the car.

[Turbo3Iroc]

There are 2 cuts in it and a set screw in one of them. I don't recall what size it is off hand. A large pair of channel locks will work sometimes also.

[cordes]

There are 2 cuts in it and a set screw in one of them. I don't recall what size it is off hand. A large pair of channel locks will work sometimes also.

Thanks for the tip. Between you guys and the FSM I'm going to be all set.

[supercrackerbox]

Also be careful not to nick or tear the seal.

[RoadWarrior222]

Yeah, it's like a super long socket, a pipe with a bolt tapped in the side of it might work... or if you've got a big enough socket with an external hex end, you might be able to drill it out to get the rod through the middle. Also there's those oldskool stamped tube tbar sockets... hard to find these days, one of those would probably work to get you into the rack and use a wrench on the outside, coz they're usually double ended.

[cordes]

What is the easiest way to tell which rack I have in the car? TRW or Saginaw? My 90' FSM lists virtually nothing for the power rack except to just replace the whole thing.

[shackwrrr]

all aluminum=saginaw, aluminum and steel=trw

[cordes]

all aluminum=saginaw, aluminum and steel=trw

I'm assuming that you mean in the main body? If so, I'm pretty sure this is a Saginaw unit.

[shackwrrr]

yeah the whole rack assembly, both will be aluminum where the lines bolt up but on the passenger side the trw will be steel.

[cordes]

yeah the whole rack assembly, both will be aluminum where the lines bolt up but on the passenger side the trw will be steel.

Cool. I'll look again to verify, but I'm 99% sure all the racks on my vehicles are Al the whole way across. I'm guessing they used way more Saginaw racks than TRW.

[shackwrrr]

From the cars Ive been around (spirit r/t, shadow es, shelbyz) they were all TRW. I've never actually seen a saginaw rack.

[cordes]

From the cars Ive been around (spirit r/t, shadow es, shelbyz) they were all TRW. I've never actually seen a saginaw rack.

Good thing I'm going to double check then. I guess I should do some gunk scraping in addition to the visual once over!

[cordes]

From the cars Ive been around (spirit r/t, shadow es, shelbyz) they were all TRW. I've never actually seen a saginaw rack.

Wow, you were dead on! I'm glad that I double checked tonight before I order. The grease etc. on there gives it a gray appearance along the whole length so I always thought the whole piece was Al.

Thanks so much for all your help in this thread.

[shackwrrr]

No problem, I had the same problem a while back. And check out napa for parts. I got some non china (taiwan) tie rod ends that look made well for 17 bucks a piece. Everywhere else wanted 30 and up for china crap.

[cordes]

No problem, I had the same problem a while back. And check out napa for parts. I got some non china (taiwan) tie rod ends that look made well for 17 bucks a piece. Everywhere else wanted 30 and up for china crap.

I ordered mine off of Rockauto. It was really cheap so even if it doesn't hold up forever I'll be OK with it.

What do you torque these things to anyway? I don't want to over or under do it.

[shackwrrr]

Gudenteit, I always use blue locktite on the rack threads and the set screw threads too.

[cordes]

Gudenteit, I always use blue locktite on the rack threads and the set screw threads too.

Cool. I'll do the same.

I'm either missing the section in the FSM or they just didn't include it. That's pretty crappy IMO.

[135sohc]

Like you said earlier chrysler doesnt really cover much with the actual steering rack besides replacing the outer tie rod ends because your supposed to replace the entire thing when something fails.

[cordes]

Like you said earlier chrysler doesnt really cover much with the actual steering rack besides replacing the outer tie rod ends because your supposed to replace the entire thing when something fails.

I may end up doing that if this goes south. I sure hope that's not going to be the case though.

[cordes]

Wow, that went really well.

Also, the 90' FSM lists the inner tie rod torque at 70ft/lbs.

Thanks to all who helped with this.

[black86glhs]

Racks aren't that hard to work on and going this route saved $$$$$.

[cordes]

Racks aren't that hard to work on and going this route saved $$$$$.

heck yeah it did. The inner tie rod was less than $10 on rockauto.com That's quite the savings.