Here is the section from the audiworld write up.

Man, that sucks it is giving you such a hard time. If you can wait until Sunday, I can probably give you some help. My wife works tonight and Saturday all day so I am tied up with the kids until then. I would be glad to come by and give you a hand if you dont get it done before then.

From what I remember, it seems like I had to put a wrench on the end of the inner tierod end, and I believe I either had to hold it, or I put it on so that it would bump into the frame of the car as it began turning.
Then, I used another wrench to grab the end of the outer tie rod end somewhere and rotated that to srew it out from the inner tie rod. I hope this helps. The outer rod is srewed in to the inner, so you have to brace the inner, and screw the outer one out of it.

Here's the write up, excerpts from it below. I think you may have seen this already, but I am not sure. http://www.audiworld.com/tech/wheel29.shtml

2. Next measure the distance from the back of the tie rod to the lock nut (1). You will need to know this for reassembly. The more precise this measurement is the better. I had my car aligned after this procedure, however the tech said the toe-in was just fine so if you are careful here you may not have to shell out for an alignment.

3. Use your 22mm box end or crows foot and loosen the lock nut (1). Brace the tie rod with a 18mm box end directly behind or you can do like I did and grab with the channel locks CAUTION do not damage this 18mm adjustment hex, as this is what is used to set the toe in of your car. The nut (1) only goes on with 30 ft/lbs of torque so it came off easily.


Just PM me if you want me to come over Sunday sometime.

 

Thanks.. ya i attempted to get it off the same way you described^ I just dropped it off at the shop and the guy has no doubts about it. $100 for the tie rods and an alignment... Not TOO bad, I guess. This is the first time I have taken my car in for work, hopefully the last for a long time. Doing the tranny fluid/filter tomorrow morning!
Thanks for offering to help, but its worth my time and effort to pay to get it done fast, I have an extremely busy weekend ahead-christmas party and shopping w/wife.

 

Well I guess I'll find out all this good stuff when I do mine Sorry I couldn't help more it's hard on the net sometimes...........

 

ya... have fun! After all my tries, I can now jack up the car, get the wheel off/jack up the control arm and disconnect the tie rod from the suspension in less than 10 minutes!

 

dam wish i would have looked at this thread sooner, i coulda got your the entire tire rod assembly for $65.12, plus shipping. so you could of taken the entire thing out. but it is what it is. but than again i would have dropped it off in the first place if it only cost a hundred bucks with an alignment.. i pay 60 for alignments alone.

 

Well, you should be well prepared after reading this thread!

Actually, I did mine, and I didn't really have any trouble, it went pretty smooth. Once you do one side, it takes you like 30 min total to do the other.

his must have been really corroded or siezed up for some reason, most of the tre threads I have read seemed to go pretty smoothly.

 

Just got off the phone with the shop... He said "they were seized like a mother ******." They had to heat them up a lot and my rubber boots that go over the inner TR melted so I need two new boots ($10 for both.) Should be done soon!

 

w00t!! Good to hear - is the inner rod salvageable even tho it was stripped and twisted?

 

LOL,

man, they are earning their 100 bucks! You got a good deal there, what shop is it thats doing this for you? I may have to keep them in mind for my z or something.

 

Monroe Muffler on N. High St. right accross from Firestone and Midas. The guys name is Lonnie and hes real cool. This is the same guy who welded my exhuast for free. He knows what he's doing for sure.... I normally wouldnt trust a place like that to work on my beloved Audi... But this guy is on the ball, and its not like it takes a rocket scientist to change TRE's and do an alignment. He does a lot of "off the books" work as far as I can tell.