Replacing inner tie rod?

I am wanting to replace my inner tie rod as the allignment shop said it needed to be done. I've researched a bunch and it looks pretty easy. Couple questions I had for someone who has done the job before:

-Do you have to use the inner tie rod removal tool? If I can get away with not having to buy one that would be great. Just using a pipe wrench and wrenches? Can you get to it with just hand tools?

-Do you have to remove lower ball joint from knuckle? Or can you just spin it off?

Looking for some quick and dirty short cuts here. Its getting frickin cold here in canada and the less time I spend lying on my back in the snow the better.

 

You don't have to remove the outer tie rod. You can spin it off. Just make sure you jack the truck up and be patient because it takes forever when you are lying under there and are uncomfortable.

I doubt you need the tool. There seems to be a strange lock washer and I never quite figured it out. I replaced my whole rack after finding out that it was leaking during the process of swapping the inner tie-rod.

From what it looked like, just two wrenches will work just fine.

 

Ok thanks man. Will try it when the weather here in Calgary isn't so brutally cold.

 

I am replacing my rack boots, and might do the inners. From what I see the lock washer has the "wings" that are bent up to prevent the tie rod end from loosening. All you have to do is flatten out the lock washer and loosen it up, and spin it off the outer.

I will let you know if I run into anything.

(and its 80 degrees here in FL ...had to brag)

 

Thanks man. I'm a Ron Paul fan too and not even American!

 

haha cool, come move to the US and vote for him...our country is in the pooper and we need him

And I tried to get the inners off, and ran into the fact that I dont have a wrench big enough to take them off. Tried a strap wrench, and my buddy has my pipe wrenches.

And does anyone know if these are reverse thread or what?

 

I just did both my inner tie rods last week! Bought Moog's from RockAuto, with the discount code, they were like $44 shipped, as opposed to the big chains wanting $65+ tax and a day to get them from the wharehouse.

Raised the truck, removed both wheels...makes it easier and actually minimal crawling under the truck. Need 2 big crescent wrenches, one to hold the the tie rod and the other to free the jam nut.

Cut the metal clamp, the one closest to the rack, off the boot with a wire cutter. MAKE sure you don't screw up your boot if it is still usable! The other clamp on the outer tie rod side can just be hand squeezed and left to rest on the outer tie rod and reused later.

Make sure you measure where your jam nut is on the thread, you'll need to adjust as close to that as possible when you reassemble. Once you have the jam nut free, spin it a little further back and then use your crescent wrench to undo the inner from the outer. You will have plenty of room as the back of the hub keeps moving out. Use the crescent wrench again on the rack side of the tie rod, just to free it, then I was able to spin the tie rod off by hand.

I lubed the threads up on everything when I reassembled...as far as the lock washer on the rack side of the inner rod, I put it in there, there are to tabs to lock it into the rack...but I didn't bend them in at all like the original. As far as I could tell bending them really didn't do anything as I didn't have to flatten out the originals to get the inner to spin on the rack.

Then re-thread the inner to the outer and get the jam nut as close as possible to where it was when you measured it. Use your old clamp on the outer rod side of the boot and I used a wire tie on the rack side of the boot. I actually used 2 wire ties together on the rack side because I didn't have a long enough wire tie...seems to holding just fine.

I also did my rack bushing with Energy Suspension bushings at the same time...

The tie rods were maybe a 45min job each side.

Hope this helps

 

Thanks for that. 45 minutes isnt bad at all. I did rack bushings, mine were a pain in the ass. But gotter done. Always found Moog to make really good after market parts too.

 

inner tie rods are easily replaced. just need to screw them off each end, i replaced mine with moogs and have not regretted it at all. all the threads are right hand

 

Moog and Falcon are the same thing, falcon's just a fraction of the price. They are made the same way also

 

S'what i do

 

lol forgot about this thread.. replacing the good old inner tie rod end.. didn't even fix the problem if i recall correctly

 

Here's another thread resurrection!! HAHA

Just in case anybody comes across this thread as I did...

Low Range Offroad sells both the inner and outer tie rod assemblies for $30 each piece so it would be a $120 total job to replace both sides inners and outers. Not too bad IMO.

Here's the link...
http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/index.php/yotamain/1995-2004-toyota-tacoma-parts/steering.html

And also they have an awesome video tutorial...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVQHgcXEhpE&index=8&list=FL33dk1mg6gBsyWxTuXpdoig

Only thing I would highly recommend is if it's an urgent repair, i'd call them before ordering to make sure they have the parts in stock. I had a slightly bad experience when it took 3 weeks for my order to ship since they didn't have the part in stock. But i was patient enough with them, my repair was not urgent.