I need a new passenger side outer tie rod. Any advice on DIY?


How about part brand? What do you know about Moog? or something better?


My shop wants an hour's labor and will let me bring my own part. But I'd rather do it myself and then have them do an alignment.


Thanks!

 

OEM part is made by ZF Lemförder, have a look in the suspension subforum, there's a post with the part numbers.

 

I think this part is common to a Lincoln. There was a similar post on here about 10 days ago.

 

It's the same part as a Lincoln LS. I bought mine off ebay for $55 for a pair (I'm not sure why you would only need one side unless you buggered it up hitting something?) It is a very very easy job.
The original tie rods ends have a hex fitting inside the threaded shaft to keep it from spinning while you loosen the lock nut. On my car I would have needed to take the Brembo brake caliper off to get at that, so I used a tie rod "fork" tool instead. Worked fine. Once the nut is off, the tie rod drops out. The tie rod then turns off the steering rack, and you will likely have to use a wrench to break the lock nut from the tie rod. However, do not move the lock nut more than need to loosen it. Compare the new and old parts. On mine, the part that threaded on to the steering rack was different on the new part. I measured from the end to the center of the tie rod joint on both and set the lock nut accordingly. Spin the new end onto the steering rack, snug it down with the wrench and use a new lock nut on the wheel end.
Next stop is the alignment rack
This process will get you close enough to safely drive it to the shop. Should take longer to take the tire off/on than to change out the tie rod end.
Oh, and on my new parts the threaded shaft was longer than original and hit my brake caliper, so I had to cut a bit off the end with my grinder.

 

Thanks ... that's very helpful. Sounds like a piece of cake, and I'll try it. I did decide it's better to change both out--it's just that my mechanic identified only one side as having warn out.