Should i Replace Tie Rods Myself

looked at your video and the first comment was that the vehicle should be nose first in the driveway, that way your not in front of it if it goes down the driveway. Then when you mentioned a bottle jack combined with a slanted driveway I had second thoughts. What about the local automotive technical school doing the job for you? The toe in has to be set as part of this process and the most accurate way is on an alignment rack.
 
Like melsg5 said try somewhere where they are learning to do this supervised. Maybe even a local high school...
______________________________
 
It's not that hard of a job but safety would be one of my concerns ,and you have to measure the old and match the new one to the old measurements and maybe ,maybe you won't need an alignment. There has to be some backyard mechanic that would do this 1 hour job for ~$50 ?? Maybe craigslist ?
 
High school auto shop is a good bet.

Don't do it in a slanted driveway. I used to even work on my blazer on the side of the street fine enough, afterall its only an hour. Maybe do 1 side at a time as well to keep one drive wheel on the ground at all times.

You really need a good floor jack and Jack stands to do anything like this safely. If you don't use jackstands don't even try it. However, the job is quite easy if you are meticulous. The new ones need to go on exactly the same as the old ones came off. Most likely you'll need an alignment after you finish though, as its pretty hard to eyeball them back to where they were.

As far as taking the old ones out and putting new ones on its quite easy though.
 
you could use whiteout to mark the spot where the threads end..i wish i had a pic to show you..but if you did it that way you most likey won't need a alignment..and most of the time you don't need to raise the car to replace a tierod..you just need to turn the wheel enough to make room to work
______________________________
 
The old timers way was to count the number of turns it takes to remove old unit them replace with same number of turns. There can be slight differences in parts so alignment may be still be needed but this will get you close.
 
old man said:
The old timers way was to count the number of turns it takes to remove old unit them replace with same number of turns. There can be slight differences in parts so alignment may be still be needed but this will get you close.
Click to expand...

yepper..my pops said the same thing to me when i was younger
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top