Hey, so the TRE on my driver side is stuck in the inner tie rod pretty damn well. I have soaked it with pb blaster and also heated the hell out of it with MAPP gas, but to no avail. I was able to get it to start spinning and I thought finally I got it, but it broke the seal on the TRE and was spinning its self in there rather than spinning out of the inner tie rod . Has anyone encountered this problem or have any suggestions to fix it?

 

Do you have a Dremel or something with a cut-off wheel? Seems to me you might be able to spend some time cutting it apart, so you can eventually get it in 3 pieces. But you would need to be careful not to cut too far and gouge the threads on the inner tie rod.

 

Take off the whole tie rod inner and end. A couple options would be to...

1- Get a BIG adjustable wrench and try to remove the inner tie rod

2- Somehow cut the end of the tie rod end off, so you can slip a inner tie rod removal tool over the TR inner and the TR end.

I think option 2 is the best. The inner tie rod may be tough to get to with a wrench and even then you probably wont have much leverage.

Either way you do it I'm pretty sure you'll need an inner tie rod also..

 

I had no problem getting my inner tie rod out using an adjustable wrench, you just turn the wheel to full lock and take off the plastic cover and you have good access. If you end up replacing the inner then remember to take the boot off the old assembly, you're gonna have to cut the assembly in half to get the boot off.

 

Does anyone know of a good DIY write up on how to change the inner Tie Rod? Or have some good pictures? Because I'm not sure where you guys are talking about unscrewing it.

 

Cutting apart an assembly like that is a gigantic pain in the ***, and you will likely destroy the whole thing. Heat is the answer, oxygen/acetylene is best, but mapp gas should do the trick.

 

You have to unclamp the inner side of the inner boot and slide it outward, the part of the tie rod under it is a large hex that you can undo with an adjustable wrench. It's a bit of a pain because the boot has just barely enough give to let you slip a wrench in. If you look at a new inner tierod you'll see the hex I'm talking about.

 

It's an octagonal shape, at least my stock ones and my replacements were.

 

Either way an adjustable wrench works, I'm just going off memory from a few months ago.

 

It's a 38.4 mm octogonal nut. I just replaced my inner tie rod assemblies last night.

If you can find an auto parts store that has a 38.4mm crows foot wrench, you could do this with little difficulty.