ok two issues arose last night when we did it. 1. busted off a tie rod bolt and 2. abs is now not working.
ill do the abs since its easier to explain. well i tried wrenching out the abs sensor on the right side cause i thought it had to come out. i used a vice grips and kept twisting it to free it since it was rusted in. then i looked online and realized that you can just take the gromet out of the firewall and unplug it. im not really concerned about it not working at the moment, but i was thinking i either wrecked the sensor by twisting it or i actually moved it out a little bit and it isnt making solid contact. any guess?
the next problem is a little more concerning as it is potentially life threatening. when one of the guys helping started to take the nut off the stud of the left tie rod end, it busted off. i personally am not increbily concerned as there is that clamp holding it on and it is slotted so that bolt that clamps it goes through the slot and stops the tie rod end stud from falling out of the hole. lets see if i can find a good picture... click on the attachment. any insight?

 

Replace the tie rod end. Do not gamble with your suspension. You don't want the last thing you ever think to be, "Oh, ****, I should have replaced it after all."

 

yeah i just checked on autozone and its like 18 bucks so its not really an issue of money. whats the longest i should drive like that? something i didnt mention earlier was i had trouble getting out the pinch bolt (of course). what we did worked pretty good though. we took the nut off until just past flush with the end of the bolt and i would hit that with a mallet and somebody else air hammered the **** of the actualy pinch part, along with a liberal squirting of wd-40. it came out in like five minutes. of course the bolt was completely shot, but we got it out nonetheless. luckily we were at my buddy's diesel shop so we just matched up a new bolt and zipped it back on.

 

I wouldn't drive on it at all, personally. Don't cheap out on the part, either. Don't get like Valuecraft or some crappy brand.