Hello,

Recently, I picked up a Jaguar XJ L Portfolio from a nearby salvage on sale for $7,400. The alignment was pretty bad (45 degrees to the right on the steering wheel was considered straight). Driving it around after I bought it, I thought it was a pretty dope car, until recently, the inner tie rod snapped from the outer tie rod end. After talking to some people about how this happened, they said the grease wears out on the ball joint on the inner tie rod.

I bought the parts to replace the tie rods on both sides, and as I was trying to take them off, I noticed the threads spin alongside with the nut, meaning nothing was happening every time I was turning the nut off to remove the tie rod. I noticed on the top of the threaded portion of the tie rod end was a hex style bit. Am I supposed to have a wrench to hold it in place, while I unscrew the bolt to make sure it comes off?

Also does anyone know the torque specification for whenever I do attach the new outer and inner tie rods? I haven't been able to find anything related to torque specs.

Any help is appreciated!!

The time the tie rod snapped.

Another angle of the outer tie rod end

 

Welcome to the forums,

I've copied your question from New Member Area - Intro a MUST to X351 forum for advice from members with the same model.

Graham

 

Based your writing that the aligment was so much on side, i would suspect that the reason for the fail are that front tyre have been hit somewhere and tie rod have been bend and then later snapped. There are big possibility for more. Please examine all suspension parts and chassis mounts on that side for possible more bends or cracks. Compare to other side. Its better to catch them in time than have an failure in highway. (suspension parts are made by Lemförder and available from auto parts shops for reasonable prices - no need to purchase from JLR)
I havent hear or seen inner tierod joint crease would been drying on any vehicles, expet very early chinese models where manufacturers were still learning things. (more often the drivesaft CV joints have this issue -> Note that your inner CV joint rubber: It looks wet. I recommend to peek inside that there are crease. When CV gets hot, the grease turns very thin and start to escape)
Yes, if the balljoint cone do not bite to the wheel knuckle the ball don´t have any friction, so when you rotate the nut, an balljoint will rotate. On these cases in most cases its faster to use an nut splitter to remove the nit than holding the top, since it most likely will fracktyre/slip. You can try. Clean the threads first as much as possible from rust by wirebrush.
The tierod inner joint are removed by removing first the rubber cover and under that you can see the balljoint. The balljoint base are threaded to the steering axle. The tierod itself cant be removed from the base/axle by rotating.
From sticky section you can download the x351 repair and service manual, where are all torgues etc. (its not 4WD but at least you get something)

Note: x351 are very sensitive for correct aligment: Once you are done take it to the 4-wheel aligment. (values on same manual if the shop don´t have them)
Tierod adjustment nut 55Nm
Tierod ball joint to wheel knuckle 133Nm
The service manual only include the change of whole steering rack, not change of invidual tierods. (tierods /inner baljoints are not very common to be needed to be changed) I would use same 55Nm for he inner baljoint to the steering axle than the nut in tierod adjustment.

 

Those control arms, knuckle, strut, caliper and other parts don't look anything like our 2012.
That's a 2016 XJL?
Completely different from the 2012 then.

 

From the photos looks like a V6 AWD front suspension. not offered prior to 2013. IMHO