Outer tie rod replacement.

[don-ohio]

Went and ordered the new ones today from Auto-Zone and they'll be in tomorrow. I guess 99,000 miles isn't too bad on the original ones.
Anyway,in this cold weather it's always a challenge. don-ohio ^)

 

[Josh P]

How are the rest of the bushings? Most of the ones on my van look brand new. Only ones I need to address are on the rear upper control arm. I'm going to make replacements out of polyurethane.

 

[don-ohio]

Everything else looks good,Josh

How are the rest of the bushings? Most of the ones on my van look brand new. Only ones I need to address are on the rear upper control arm. I'm going to make replacements out of polyurethane.

I may be mistaken,but as far as I know there is no looseness other than the tie rods.
Anybody reading this needs to be really careful if not using approved equipment for bushings. When a rear end trailing arm or mounting bushing gets loose,the car can track erratically as it actually steers the car from the rear.
I mean I'm sure you know what you're doing,but there may be some reading this that don't understand how critical those bushngs are. don-ohio ^)

 

[BrooklynBay]

Did you order tie rods with grease fittings or sealed tie rods? You should let an alignment shop install them before they do an alignment. Another possibility is to put a piece of electrical tape around the threaded arm on the rack & pinion to mark the location of the old tie rod before you remove it.

 

[don-ohio]

I bought the lifetime warranted AUTO-ZONE tie rods WITH grease fittings.
Yeah,Brooklyn,I'm an old hand at doing these suspension repairs(no brag,just a fact). I measured EXACTLY the distance from the tip of the rubber bellows to the center of the grease fitting hole. The driver's side was 11 and 13/16ths inches and the right side was 11 and 7/8ths inches.
I also measured the distance between the wheel rims before I disassembled anything and at the front left rim to front right it was 53 and 5/16ths inches.
GUESS WHAT? Even to my surprise,that distance was the same after assembly.
Normally I work these off jack stands from a sitting position,but with my 2-post lift it was a piece of cake,even with the cold weather. don-ohio ^)

P.S. Interestingly enough,the old flawed wisdom of counting the threads on the tie rod as you unscrew it ACTUALLY WORKED this time. I don't think I've ever seen it work before.I just counted the threads,16 on driver and 15 on passenger and it came out exactly right! I'll drive it a little and do a final toe-in check with the wheels down later.

 

[Josh P]

I may be mistaken,but as far as I know there is no looseness other than the tie rods.
Anybody reading this needs to be really careful if not using approved equipment for bushings. When a rear end trailing arm or mounting bushing gets loose,the car can track erratically as it actually steers the car from the rear.
I mean I'm sure you know what you're doing,but there may be some reading this that don't understand how critical those bushngs are. don-ohio ^)

Don, you are correct. Those bushings are critical. Mine are so badly worn I can push on the side of the van till the tire stops it. I'm going to torch the rubber out and fill it with liquid polyurethane. The import guys have been making motor mounts this way for decades. If it doesn't work I figured out that the rear upper control arm on a 99-04 grand Cherokee almost fits perfectly between the frame rails and there are kits for the 8.8 to use the grand cherokee ball joint. Right now the van is parked. Once it warms up some I will tackle it.

 

[don-ohio]

Okay,have fun! Hope your bushings work.
I worked out in the cold today but I only had a small job to do on the Aerostar.I replaced the tie rods and replaced my inline filter on the tranny cooling lines.Kinda messy that! LOL! don-ohio ^)

 

[BrooklynBay]

Don, what kind of 2 post lift do you have? Is it an in floor model from WWW.BendPak.Com?

 

[don-ohio]

It's a TITAN 9000 lb. chinese made floor plate AF model. No overhead bar connecting the posts with hydraulic hose and equalizing cables.Mine are under the floor plate you drive across. I bought 2 safety stands also.
I would not recommend this one,since the bottom plate of each post was convex by 1/8" and I had to grind my brand new concrete pad concave to 1/8" for it to work,OR use a bunch of shims.
If I had it to do over,I'd contact www.gregsmithequipment.com to get it.
Still the thing works great and saves so much trouble.
I'm going out now to install my studded snow tires by just lifting the van a little,instead of crawling under and using the old trolley jack twice. don-ohio ^)