'Xactly!
Frustration with getting tie-rod ends to come out
- Thread starter sunrk
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #42
I now have a set of OTC front-end tools. As for the two-hammers method, I'm not sure how to do that on-vehicle as there doesn't seem to be enough room without hitting other things in the process. I'm just a shadetree mechanic after all. 
Having read this thread after an initial unsuccessful try, I was fully prepared for a miserable experience. Then I remembered having used a ball joint separator on a BMW ten years ago. Found this in the bottom drawer of my toolbox . Easy peasy, if you discount how startling the gun shot noise of the separation is every single time.
May as well drop this here out of the manual for posterity.
This absolutely kicked my ass all day! Finally, after just about everything I could imagine, it popped:
Wrecked three different pullers trying to get this off:
This thing was stuck on like nothing I've seen. Other side came off without too much complaint, but this end into the pitman arm, it wasn't going anywhere. Tried every version of puller and tool mentioned here, including a propane torch and freeze spray. What did it in the end was this $30 bit of rubbish from supercheap auto here down under:
It's that curve for the bolt to fit into that did it. The other version of this tool I had has a flat edge here. I put enough force on the tool to literally flatten the bolt at an angle, but that's the issue - it wasn't pushing straight down on it. That curve makes sure that whatever angle the arm is at, force is distributed onto both sides of the bolt, pushing it straight down, not at an angle. It also made the tool "grip" the bolt to keep the bottom side centered on the end and not slip off. That's what made this work. If you're getting a tool, make sure it has that feature.
Pickle fork might have got it to let go eventually, but I put a metric f#*kton of force on it already, which was going directly into my steering box. I doubt this end could have been removed with the fork without rooting the box. As it is I'm crossing my fingers.
Wrecked three different pullers trying to get this off:
This thing was stuck on like nothing I've seen. Other side came off without too much complaint, but this end into the pitman arm, it wasn't going anywhere. Tried every version of puller and tool mentioned here, including a propane torch and freeze spray. What did it in the end was this $30 bit of rubbish from supercheap auto here down under:
It's that curve for the bolt to fit into that did it. The other version of this tool I had has a flat edge here. I put enough force on the tool to literally flatten the bolt at an angle, but that's the issue - it wasn't pushing straight down on it. That curve makes sure that whatever angle the arm is at, force is distributed onto both sides of the bolt, pushing it straight down, not at an angle. It also made the tool "grip" the bolt to keep the bottom side centered on the end and not slip off. That's what made this work. If you're getting a tool, make sure it has that feature.
Pickle fork might have got it to let go eventually, but I put a metric f#*kton of force on it already, which was going directly into my steering box. I doubt this end could have been removed with the fork without rooting the box. As it is I'm crossing my fingers.
As for removing the tie rod ends from the rods themselves, blow that. It's new rods and ends for this rig:
