Middle of birf lob, need help!!! (3 Viewers)

[Buckru]

Middle of birf job, need help!!!

I am in the middle of a birf job and am in desperate need of help. First off, I am at my parents house (my driveway is gravel) for the job and they have dial up, so bear with the slow responses.
I have the axle out and am trying to use a gear puller to seperate the steering arm from the tie rod. I have tried a two arm and three arm puller but, it wont budge at all. Can someone chime in with some advice? Some might say I dont need to change the the trunion bearing. Since I am having some steering wander, it is essential for me to change it out. I really appreciate anyones advice here.

Buck

BTW, it is a 97 with 128k on the clock.

 

[clownmidget]

Buck,
Put on one of the pullers - I've always just used a two arm TRE puller - and get it as torqued as possible. Then wack the steering arm (the section just beneath the rod end) with a hammer. Spraying the joint liberally with something (wd-40, liquid wrench, etc) and/or hitting it with some heat from a small propane torch may help too. Some others have had luck just getting it tight then leaving it alone for an hour and it pops off.

One safety note is to leave the castle nut on the TRE, just as loose as possible. You don't want that TRE flying off under that pressure.

This was also just posted with some pictures too so do a quick search.

Good luck
Mike

 

[Buckru]

Mike

Thanks. I just sprayed it with some wd40. I will go put the gear puller ( on loan from O'rileys) on and let it set for a while and see what happens. Great idea about loosely screwing the nut on.

Buck

 

[archie]

Here's a link to some other advice https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=29191&highlight=TRE

 

[Gumby]

Smacking it with a hammer works well. Hit the part where the TRE goes through. Don't hit the TRE threads. Even if you plan on replacing it. It limits your options if it doesn't work.

I have had great success with a pickle fork.

 

[Beowulf]

You don't need to seperate the steering arm from the tie rod to replace the trunion bearings. Just unbolt the steering arm from the bottom of the knuckle. Make sure the studs are securely in the knuckle before you reinstall the arm.

-B-

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

You don't need to seperate the steering arm from the tie rod to replace the trunion bearings. Just unbolt the steering arm from the bottom of the knuckle. Make sure the studs are securely in the knuckle before you reinstall the arm.

-B-

Took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[Riley]

Just remember the order of the shims and replace them as before. When I did mine, I didn't bother to pull the Tie rod ends.

 

[GreatLakesWaterjet]

My Snap-on dealer told me to hit the puller bolt{ the one you tighten } . I tried it on several jobs and its works great. Heck, its under warranty.

 

[snowwolfwarrior]

I replaced the bottom knuckle housing steering arm studs for the new type and locked them in with lock tight liquid metal, I had 2 two out of 3 studs sheer and the 2 that were ok were loose, quite a frightening thought, better to change them while stripped down.

 

[pound3151]

I'm with B and Arya, no need to remove it.

 

[cruiserdan]

This is true. However trunion bearing pre-load can not be checked if the tie rods are not removed from the arms and re-installation is a bit more effort. Trunion bearing pre-load will probably be fine but you won't know it.

 

[CruisinGA]

If you decide you need to remove the TRE, a pickle fork + BFH is the way to go. Just buy some new boots to install, pickle forks always get them seperated but normally trash the boots as well.

Napa carries them-listed as a "Tie Rod End Seperator." There is a smaller one that is called a "ball joint seperator" this one will not work.