Hey just got my inner tie rods from coventry west and I'm about to take on replacing them I have replaced my upper wishbone bushings tie rod ends front sway bar bushings lower shock mounts uppers and lower ball joints and low control arm bushings so this is one of the last parts of the front end rebuild I'm getting a periodic CLICKING from the front end. So I'm gonna do this is there anything special or tricks or even things to look out for when I do this????? THANKS

 

Never heard a tie rod 'click', usually a rattle over small, sharp bumps, thresholds, etc. Before removing measure both sides against a stationary portion of the car and write it down. Let's say you do the right side first. When reassembling move the left side to its original measurement and assemble the right side to meet its original measurement. Repeat for left side. Don't count on this as negating the need for an alignment but it will keep you from tearing the beejeesus outta your tires on the way to the alignment shop.

 

finished the inner tie rods they were relativly easy remove the tie rod end from the hub then take off the retaining clip that holds the rubber boot on the inner part of the steering rack then I used a big cresent wrench to loosen and remove the inner rod piece of cake. one of them was extremly easy to move around and the other one was not as bad but replaced both anywayone of the original tie rod ends was frozen on so to get the plastic boot off I sawed it in half being it was junk any way. This was the inside boot of the one that was really loose looks bad but not sure what it shouldve looked like I marked and measured the rod end to try to get my alignment as close as possible before taking it to get aligned hope everything is good now

 

I am considering replacing the inner tie rods ends along with the outer ones on my 97 XK8. You mention that it was fairly easy. Do you recall if there is a pin on the inner bolt ? You used a large crescent wrench so no need for the long inner tie rod tool ?

Any advice you have greatly appreciated !

 

There is no pin, I am shown changing mine 9 mins into this video.

 

Any need to be concerned about putting stress on the rack while removing and re-torquing the inner tie rod?

 

If the boot was good and didn't allow moisture to rust the threads, it should break free without a huge amount of torque. I'd guess it was less than 80 lb ft.


Should not be enough to cause much stress. I was worried about this also, but it popped loose which much less effort than I was anticipating.