Tie rod and ball joint woes.

fattie

fattie

fat kid
I replaced the drivers side inner/outer tie rods and ball joint on a friends 02 outback. besides getting the old bj out of the knuckle everything went smooth. he tried to go to work this morning and he said it was pulling worse than it did before , he has his keys so I haven't been able to get the car in the garage to take a look. any idea what could be causing this ?

 
just did some searching , found if you tighten the axle nut to much ( I used an impact so probly ) it could cause pulling. but it pulls to the right , not the left , wich is the side I replaced everything. hmmmm

Pedro said:
the lack of an alignment after you changed major suspension components.
Click to expand...
I know he needs an alignment afterwards. but he didnt even dare to drive it 2 miles to work , could it really be that bad ? I matched up the new tie rods to the old best I could. gutta wait till 5 when he gets home to start tearing into things again.

 
if you set the axle nut with an impact you should dissasemble everything and check the bearing for scorch marks form being so damn tight.

 
tie rod swap almost always requires alignment afterward because it's really hard to change tie rod parts and get adjustment exactly same as before. his old alignment might have been trying to compensate for worn parts, so swapping in new really makes it way off.

axle nut needs to be torqued precisely or else bearing adj becomes an issue.

RTFM people.

 
I have NEVER heard of anything about not using an impact on an axle nut. In fact, it's the way I have always done it. It can't really do anything to the bearing unless it wasn't tight enough. I have never had an issue from tightening an axle nut and I have tightened hundreds at this point. Never had any pulling, and no failed bearings. The hub tightens against the bearing race, so unless you are using an impact meant for big trucks or something, you should never have to worry about that.

So with that said, I am going with it needing an alignment after you replaced the tie rod ends. If you didn't put them back exactly where they were, it will probably pull and drive differently.

 
Any time you mess with suspension/steering you run the risk of something being out of whack when your done. My car feels different after just doing the control arm bushings. I have read other places saying to not use an impact. This isn't a problem for me since I have ended up not having one for changing an axle. That said I do grab a torque wrench and torque the nut to spec. Then I run it for a week and recheck it just to be sure.

Did you place the tires on the sides they were on? I know its a dumb question but it does effect things if one is worn different. If it was pulling before then it definitely needs an alignment also.

 
I should also add that every garage I have ever been in uses an impact to tighten axle nuts.

 
Axle nuts have a spec like most nuts and bolts and it is possible to hurt a bearing by over tightening it. Yet most shops, myself included never does it properly. It pulls due to the tie rod and just needs an alignment.

 
yea , I pulled the wheel off and everything was like it was suppose to be , so ive started on the other side. soaked with pb , heated with torch , stripped the pinch bolt. tommorro morning is gunna be fun gunna try and hammer on a socket and if not drill it out like the other side. never done ball joints before so its been an experience.

 
There's a spacer between the bearings, or the inner races are long enough to contact each other. Depending on what type of bearing you have, but regardless, the preload is set by default. You can't really over tighten it, you can really only under tighten the bearing.

Last time I had the misfortune of replacing tie rods on my car, I didn't get an alignment afterwards. I got the new assy. as close in length as I could to the old one. Drove it a bit to get the suspension settled, then measured the distance between the wheels. Adjusted, measured, adjusted. Drove it some to make sure everything was settled, etc. I got it spot on. Driving 80 on the highway the car would drive dead straight and not pull at all.

If you're doing both sides it's important to get one side adjusted before you do the second side. Otherwise it'll be a lot harder to get the wheel straight and everything centered.

Stripping ball joint pinch bolts is bad. It's worth taking the time not to let that happen.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Chris said:
There's a spacer between the bearings, or the inner races are long enough to contact each other. Depending on what type of bearing you have, but regardless, the preload is set by default. You can't really over tighten it, you can really only under tighten the bearing.

Last time I had the misfortune of replacing tie rods on my car, I didn't get an alignment afterwards. I got the new assy. as close in length as I could to the old one. Drove it a bit to get the suspension settled, then measured the distance between the wheels. Adjusted, measured, adjusted. Drove it some to make sure everything was settled, etc. I got it spot on. Driving 80 on the highway the car would drive dead straight and not pull at all.

If you're doing both sides it's important to get one side adjusted before you do the second side. Otherwise it'll be a lot harder to get the wheel straight and everything centered.

Stripping ball joint pinch bolts is bad. It's worth taking the time not to let that happen.
Click to expand...

what would you recommend ? I used heat , pb and an impact gun. it was destined to strip.

 
Were you using a 6point impact socket? Also for really stubborn bolts that are in places like that I spray them down the night before. The only bolt destined to strip is the one that's rusted to the point of no strenght. Those ones really suck. I have broken more bolts then I have stripped. When dealing with older cars that have rusted nuts a nut splitter is a great tool. It will be my next purchase as using a sawzall on some stuff isn't ideal.

 
Yea, 6-point sockets are the only way to go on old rusty cars. I've had nuts and bolts that were rounded off by a crappy 12-point. I put my trusty 6-point socket on. And sure enough, the bolt comes right out nice and happy.

 
Chris said:
There's a spacer between the bearings, or the inner races are long enough to contact each other. Depending on what type of bearing you have, but regardless, the preload is set by default. You can't really over tighten it, you can really only under tighten the bearing.
Click to expand...
THANK YOU. This is what I was saying.

 
I studied the breakdown and from the looks of it the bearing has no real pressure against it. You have oil seals there so pressure against the bearing races would be bad. I am thinking the not over torquing an axle nut isn't due to the bearing but the axle itself. Think about it, what happens when you over torque a lug nut. It can have problems such as stripping or snapping the stud. Now if you lost your axle nut then your bearing would present problems. This happened to someone on USMB.

 
got it done , ended up just drilling the bolt out. one thing I found that helps get the bj out of the knuckle is when you spread the pinch , rip the boot of the old bj and clamp on a pair of vice grips and twist the bj to break the rust , then just bolt it back up to the control arm and hit it with a hammer. works pretty good.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top