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While I have my steering and supsension off, I was thinking about replacing the tie rods. But if they are still good I would really hate to replace them.
How can I tell if my tie rods are ok to reuse?
Is there any way to clean out all the old dirty grease and replace it with fresh grease?
The traditional quick and dirty way of determining tie rod end wear is to check the free play in the steering linkage. There can be other causes for free play, but tie rod end or idler arm wear is first thing to expect.
If the steering wheel has excessive travel before you feel resistance of the steering linkage, the tie rod ends are generally worn. At best this is a qualitative test...excessive travel would be more than a few degrees; the less free play you have, the less wear you have. If you have power steering, do the test without the engine running...the power assist will make it difficult to know when steering resistance is met. A new car will have virtually zero free play in the steering.
OK to reuse?...The thing about bad tie rod ends is that you'll KNOW when they're not OK to use. Steering components must be designed to catastophically fail long after they become too much of a nuisance for the average human to endure...visualize having to make constant back-and-forth 45 degree wheel adjustments to take up the free play and keep the vehicle going in a straight line. Probably time to replace them before it gets that bad.
The best you can do for cleaning the ends is to pump fresh grease through the tie rod end while moving the stud portion of the joint in all directions. The fresh grease, if evenly distributed by moving the stud around, should sweep the old stuff out the bottom of the seal.
One other thing...for a judged car, replace the tie rod ends only if it's necessary. Replacement ends are available, but they are not the same configuration as the originals.
Unfortunately I have already taken the steering off the car and I didnt check it before I removed it as I was just planning to put new ones on. At the time I didnt know much about how hard these old parts are to get.
So Ill just clean them up best I can for now and them try it out.
This is what happens when you dont know what the heck you are doing!
"...This is what happens when you dont know what the heck you are doing! "
Dude...Do you think there are any of us here that haven't had exactly that same thought? I had a boss once that would assure me that "If you're not making some mistakes, you're not doing anything".
When I said to move the stud around in all directions, I should have explained that if the end is in good condition, the stud will not be easy to move..it should be fairly tight. You'll be able to move it slowly in one direction, but you will not be able to jiggle it every which way, particularly if it's off the car. If the stud is fairly loose, the end is probably toast.
The amount of wear on the ends will depend on how well the car was cared for...if the previous owners kept it well greased, the ends should still be in pretty good shape assuming the car doesn't have a million miles on it. JMO
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