tie rod end replacement

First thing I did was remove the sway bar when I heard this noise

 

^So is the tie rod end boot torn and leaking grease or not? If so then its days are numbered anyway.

There are two possibilities when you try to remove the old tie rod end:

1) The tapered stud is stuck in the spindle (aka knuckle). Use a "pitman arm puller" like this one to remove the tie rod (~$13 on Amazon). No hammering needed, just a foot-long ratchet or wrench.



2) The tapered stud is free, and spins when you try to loosen the nut. Need an impact gun if this happens.

 

There is some grease leaking around it. Both sides actually. Can't find a rip in the boot. If I squeeze it some oozes out the top of the boot. I do plan to replace them still. I'll see if torquing the LCA bolts helped when I drive it tomorrow

 

Torquing down the lca bolts did not fix the issue

 

If I were you I'd try doing the tie rod ends first since they are relatively cheap to do. If it's leaking grease now it won't be long until they are shot and need a change anyway. If that doesn't fix it I'd check the steering rack bushings and if that doesn't do it I'd look into wheel bearings... I say wheel bearings last because it's a little more expensive than the rest

 

The tie-rod end bolt should be torqued to 67-ft.lbs on 2nd Gens (4wd / Pre-runners).

 

this is my plan

 

Got under again. This time removed the skid. I realized that I didn't get the front lca bolts torqued. So now they are all done to 100 ft lbs. I also torqued the the front cross member bolts, 4 of them.and the braces that go between frame and bumper(I removed these to get sway bar out and just forgot to torque). Some were pretty loose. We'll see

 

So whatever it was. Torquing all those bolts worked. The clunk is gone

 

Might have been the LCA. I was just reading in a thread earlier today that had the same issue and they fixed it by torquing the LCA bolts

 

I called the guy at the alignment shop. And said they were loose. He said OK sorry. I asked if I needed to bring it back since I have been driving it for 2 weeks like this. He said no. What do you guys think?

 

I'm not sure on this, to me if it's been loose and knocking around on bumps it would seem that it may be out of align by a little bit...but I really wouldn't know. I think I'd still bring it to be sure