Outer Tie Rod Ends

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[Chris]

So on the freaking list of money sucking things to do to my car so it'll pass inspection, I had to replace the outer tie rod ends yesterday. Well, all went well (one of the easiest things to do on a car) but now it's hard as hell to turn the steering wheel, and the front end squeaks like a mofo. The only problem I ran into was the nut on the actual tie rod was rusted to hell on both ends, and had a death grip that wouldn't let go - so I couldn't place the new adjuster nut on there. The new tie rod ends were exactly the same dimensions as the old so I don't believe that they're out of adjustment much, but I don't think that should have caused the excessive resistance and horrible squeaking noise...

anyone ever run into this?

[3100MPFI]

it almost sounds like you overtightened the castle-nut on the bottom of the tie rods causing them to not rotate in the socket.  That is part of the reason the cotter pin is in there.  You don't tighten it down.  You just get it snug, and stick the pin in there so it can't work loose.

Did you really tighten down on the nuts at the end?  That is the only thing I can think of that might have caused this.

[Chris]

I tightened them down, but nothing that I thought was excessive... The squeaking seems to be coming from the steering rack, but can't confirm this until I can snag someone to turn the wheel while I listen for the noise. I was considering popping them out and thriwing a little extra grease to 'em to see if that would help any.

[Chris]

Loosened them up to the point where they're jsut kinda sitting in the spindle and I can freely take them out by hand and there's still squeaking??

[Chris]

Well after this the car tracks funny. The new tie rods are adjusted to the exact specs as the old ones, and the car use to track straight. Now if I make a sharp right turn, the car will pull to the right hard unless I make a hard left turn, then it'll pull to the left. No happy median here, it's either pulling to the right or it's pulling to the left depending on how hard of a turn i take in whatever direction. not an alignment issue, but something else has to be seriously messed up somewhere in that steering rack.

[3100MPFI]

Make usre the steering rack is tight (the mounts).

A friend of mine bought a 1990 Grand Prix turbo, and it did that.  Turns out the 2 bolts that hold the rack in were about to fall out they were so loose.  Tightened them up (not even the alignment shop caught them being loose).  After we did that, the car was fine.  Still had to get an alignment done, but at least the rack was fine.  Those TGP racks are EXPENSIVE.

[Chris]

FWIW a year later, the car still has this problem, and it's annoying as fuck.