Inner Tie Rod Boot
11-04-2013, 04:56 PM
#1
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Posts: 3
Inner Tie Rod Boot
Was replacing my LCA (bushings and ball joints were due and the LCA didn't look great, so all-in-one seemed cost-effective), outer tie rods, sway bar bushings, and tie rod boots. After a few little hang-ups, including paying a shop (that was insisting on taking no payment, but I insisted harder-thanks, Car-X!) to take off the driver-side inner-bushing sleeve, I ended up getting stuck on something stupid: I can't get my driver-side tie rod boot to slip onto the rack!
I pretty effortlessly got the boot over the [protected] threads and slipped into place, but the blasted thing just won't get around the opening of the rack and it wasted 45 minutes of my time this morning. I tried holding it in place while "hooking" it into place with a small screwdriver, but it just slid around. And with the hard lines going into the rack & pinion right above this boot, it's very difficult to hold from up top while I slip it over on bottom.
I feel like the passenger side went on with nearly zero effort (but also had more working room) and the driver side has been producing nothing but pain. Does anyone recommend any special tools are procedures, or do you think it's possible the boot is out of spec? All my parts are MOOG and ordered from Amazon. Thanks to those guys, I'm not able to replace my inner tie rods as a preventative measure since one tie rod was the incorrect part, packed into the correct box, and the other was not even vaguely within FSM spec (inner ball joint was nearly frozen-took around 90 ft-lb to get any movement). Because of that, I do consider the possibility the boot is incorrect, especially since the plastic bag the boot came in (in a MOOG box, of course) was different, but it did have matching part numbers-just a different manufacture date. Thoughts, opinions, and advice greatly appreciated tonight, guys!
I pretty effortlessly got the boot over the [protected] threads and slipped into place, but the blasted thing just won't get around the opening of the rack and it wasted 45 minutes of my time this morning. I tried holding it in place while "hooking" it into place with a small screwdriver, but it just slid around. And with the hard lines going into the rack & pinion right above this boot, it's very difficult to hold from up top while I slip it over on bottom.
I feel like the passenger side went on with nearly zero effort (but also had more working room) and the driver side has been producing nothing but pain. Does anyone recommend any special tools are procedures, or do you think it's possible the boot is out of spec? All my parts are MOOG and ordered from Amazon. Thanks to those guys, I'm not able to replace my inner tie rods as a preventative measure since one tie rod was the incorrect part, packed into the correct box, and the other was not even vaguely within FSM spec (inner ball joint was nearly frozen-took around 90 ft-lb to get any movement). Because of that, I do consider the possibility the boot is incorrect, especially since the plastic bag the boot came in (in a MOOG box, of course) was different, but it did have matching part numbers-just a different manufacture date. Thoughts, opinions, and advice greatly appreciated tonight, guys!
11-04-2013, 06:42 PM
#2
Member
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 180
Aftermarket brand boots are not an exact fit like OEM, they cover several vehicles. Plus I found the quality of Moog parts has dropped in recent years. In the case of my second gen, the OEM boots were the same price as the AM.
Well, you have to work with what you have. You can try two things, 1) turn the wheel so that the boot compresses to give you more slack so you are not fighting the boot force and 2) heat it up the end of the boot with a heat gun to make it stretch over the rack. Good luck.
Well, you have to work with what you have. You can try two things, 1) turn the wheel so that the boot compresses to give you more slack so you are not fighting the boot force and 2) heat it up the end of the boot with a heat gun to make it stretch over the rack. Good luck.
Last edited by Edge; 11-04-2013 at 06:45 PM.
11-04-2013, 08:36 PM
#3
Newbie - Just Registered
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Posts: 3
Aftermarket brand boots are not an exact fit like OEM, they cover several vehicles. Plus I found the quality of Moog parts has dropped in recent years. In the case of my second gen, the OEM boots were the same price as the AM.
Well, you have to work with what you have. You can try two things, 1) turn the wheel so that the boot compresses to give you more slack so you are not fighting the boot force and 2) heat it up the end of the boot with a heat gun to make it stretch over the rack. Good luck.
Well, you have to work with what you have. You can try two things, 1) turn the wheel so that the boot compresses to give you more slack so you are not fighting the boot force and 2) heat it up the end of the boot with a heat gun to make it stretch over the rack. Good luck.
12-04-2013, 06:53 PM
#4
Newbie - Just Registered
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Posts: 3
Sorry for not chiming back in! Turning the wheel did just the trick for me. With there actually being pressure on the boot, I put my small screwdriver under the boot to get it started, then just turned the boot and it slowly slid on until it just popped into place. Very quickly turned that hour of frustration I had before into just 2 minutes of ease.
Thanks for the simple, valuable advice!
Thanks for the simple, valuable advice!
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