Tie Rods....

U

unity

Dedicated LVC Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Messages
5,113
Reaction score
27
Location
Green Bay
I ordered new inner tie rods. I had replaced EVERYTHING in the front, including air bags, but never did the inner and now I wish I had. I have loud clunk every time I turn the wheel left or right.

Is there anything I need to know, tips? Did a search but did not come up with anything helpful. It looks like they just thread right on.
 
It might be a loose caliper bolt or aone lug has no splines left. iF it sounds like pots and pans then it is most likely your bolt I would check the lugs and caliper bolt.
 
32vmach said:
It might be a loose caliper bolt or aone lug has no splines left. iF it sounds like pots and pans then it is most likely your bolt I would check the lugs and caliper bolt.
Click to expand...

Been there, done that. It could still be something with the calipers, I noticed it was there after putting in new pads but not right away.

Regardless, the stealership mentioned a while back that the driver's side inner was bad. This was during a front end inspection involving me and a large pot hole. City covered it but needed quotes first.

And I ordered them already! Since they are still factory after 150K and they are the only part in the front I never did replace, I may as well have piece of mind.

If its still there then I am going to order all new calipers and such. Maybe go the Cobra route.
 
My brothers cobra had a loud clunk whe turning and when I looked at it, it it was he lug had no splines left and his wheel would not tighten down. My ball joints were bad and would clunk also. Might want to jack it up and try and shake the wheel and see if anything is moving. They might have gave you the wrong pads does it do it when you start to stop?
 
32vmach said:
My brothers cobra had a loud clunk whe turning and when I looked at it, it it was he lug had no splines left and his wheel would not tighten down. My ball joints were bad and would clunk also. Might want to jack it up and try and shake the wheel and see if anything is moving. They might have gave you the wrong pads does it do it when you start to stop?
Click to expand...

Not really starting and stopping unless changing from forward or reverse. For example I may hear a clunk as I start backing up and again when put in forward - but not really when braking, just when it starts moving.

When at a stop with brakes applied I can turn the wheel and make it knock right on que.

The lugs should be fine, new hubs. Ball joints are new as of last spring. Everything in the front end is MOOG.
 
When putting the new tie rods on, all you do is take off the nut that connects it to the hub, then hammer the base of the hub where the stud goes through while pulling the arm out.. once that is out, make sure you count the turns it takes to get the tie rod end off, then when you put the new one on make sure you do the same number of turns. If you dont it will most likely be screetching all the way to the alignment shop. its not very hard to do these. Just make SURE you COUNT THE TURNS to take the end off..
 
I would start by jacking the front up and have someone turn the wheel and see if you can pin point it. It does sound like what mine did before the ball joint change. Thats all I can think of without seeing and hearing it but the best bet is have someone turn it and try and pin point it.
Good luck bud
 
98CobraStarLSC said:
When putting the new tie rods on, all you do is take off the nut that connects it to the hub, then hammer the base of the hub where the stud goes through while pulling the arm out.. once that is out, make sure you count the turns it takes to get the tie rod end off, then when you put the new one on make sure you do the same number of turns. If you dont it will most likely be screetching all the way to the alignment shop. its not very hard to do these. Just make SURE you COUNT THE TURNS to take the end off..
Click to expand...

That sounds like for outters? Im doing inner rods. Do the outters have to come off to do the inners?
 
sounds kinda like strut rod bushings, mine popped as i was backing up then when i hit the brake, pop! park next to a shiny car and back up along side of it, pumping the brakes as you back up and watch the reflection of your car and you will see the wheel move back and forth if they are bad
 
They are new, but I will check them again. Last time mine went bad I also had some creaking.
 
unity said:
Not really starting and stopping unless changing from forward or reverse. For example I may hear a clunk as I start backing up and again when put in forward - but not really when braking, just when it starts moving.

When at a stop with brakes applied I can turn the wheel and make it knock right on que.

The lugs should be fine, new hubs. Ball joints are new as of last spring. Everything in the front end is MOOG.
Click to expand...
it HAS to be your inners, mine does the exact same thing & the inners are the only thing I haven't touched. Let us know if it fixes the popping/clunking. I'll be doing mine once i get paid(flat broke from my trip to Mecca, I mean Carlisle.) If It solves the issue I'll let you know.
 
They arrive today from Rock Auto.

If I can do this without taking the outters off I may get it done this week yet. If not, it will go out of town this weekend where I have access to a full shop to work on them. Either way I want to get this done before next week or before one pops right off!
 
chickenviii said:
the outers have to come off, cuz they screw onto the inners
Click to expand...

Well it looked to me that I could unscrew the inners at the rack. That would only kick the wheel out a little. Then I could unscrew the inner from the outter.

No?
 
The bellows may get in the way.

Edit:
If you manage to do it that way, it'll be one of those 'sure wish I'd though of that' moments for me.
 
as long as the knuckle can turn enough, but it will take longer to do it that way, much faster to just rip off the outer then pull the inner
 
Well. I will try and see what happens. I think the bellows can be slid back far enough to get to the inner "nut/joint" thing on the rack.
 
Well that was EASY.

Way too easy it seemed. Yup, you can take the inners off without removing the outers. Just did like I though one could.

First I loosened the locking nut that holds the two tie rods together, just a bit. Then I removed the boot and slid it down. After that just loosen it at the rack and then thread it out of the inner.

Install is easy too. But the new ones are STIFF so you have to lock that nut to the outers so when you spin the end onto the rack it wont wobble around.

I used the nut on the old one for reference before taking it off to slide the boot off. But the new MOOG ones are shorter. By appearances the was where it should be and the number of turns matched. But I had to adjust the toe after a test drive.

By the way, I still have a HORRBIBLE knock whenever I turn the wheel or back up, etc.

Problem was not fixed, but the drivers side inner was shot really bad so this was still a good thing to do.

Now it looks like I might be putting in a reman rack next once I rules out the brakes for sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 1,092 (members: 0, guests: 1,092)
Back
Top