The rods (for a PAS car) are BLOODY expensive from the dealer, and only available on a crazy lead time (months), last time I checked. I got replacement gaiters when they failed from ECP, and they had the whole lot available for relatively little money.

I was lucky, mine all came apart very nicely. The only thing I couldn't remove were the rod ends from the hubs. Hammering straight down on the bolts is a no-no, as you found out the hard way Since I didn't actually need to remove the rod ends to change the gaiters, I just wound the track rods off the ends, and slipped the gaiters over them.

Regarding the jacking...it's popular to stick a jack under the bottom of the rod end to put the balljoint in tension - otherwise it just spins around when you try to undo the nut! D'oh! I'm guessing that's what he was referring to.

No amount of hammering sideways on my rod ends was going to free them off the hubs. I tried Andy's magic formula of heat and WD40, but it wasn't going anywhere. Our old blow-torch was a bit shafted, so perhaps the new one will get them that bit hotter? I'd like to get them off at some point, as I don't like leaving parts stuck, knowing they'll need to come off one day, by which time they're hardly going to have loosened themselves

With a night or two's soaking in WD, plus a good blast with the blowlamp, the ends should come off the tie rods. Just remember to free off the lock-nut first! That way you only need to replace the rod ends, which are all over eBay. Track rods are rather harder to come by. I'd also take it as an opportunity to change the gaiters, while you've got it all apart. Those are often on't bay too.

cheers

James

Haha, the usual Foggy misread in 2 minute skim He doesn't need all new rods, he only needs the ends, because he's got the track rod ends off the hub, first by hammering and then by using a balljoint splitter. Trouble is he damaged one track rod end in the process

Oh, incidentally, Adam showed me a way to do it without a balljoint splitter. I don't like it but it does work. What you do is to hammer the side of the hub where the rod bolts into. That then shocks the rod out without damaging the nut or thread. It damages the side of the hub where you've hit it hard, but its of no real consequence as its not in a mechanical place. Its rather brutal so I prefer using a splitter

pettaw wrote:he's talking about the best way to reinstall the track rods onto the hub, but I think you wanna know how to get the things off the steering rack end yes?

?!

All useful information, anyway! Hitting the hub to get the end out on my car didn't work, btw. Probably more heat required.

cheers

James

There are different type of balljoint splitters, I have liked from those where you turn bolt to get it tensioned and then use hammer to hub and add tension little by little, sometimes hammering balljoint from below has been helpful too.

Whatever one does, don't never ever use angle grinder to cut it out as then you are ended up with useless hubs as it is nearly impossible to get that small piece out from hub after cutting.

Oh yes and there is toys and balljoint splitters, get one that actually can take abuse, if it can't take full torque from bolt gun it is toy

I don't think that heat was never used when I was in garage where these were done several ones in a week.

Steering rack end of the track rod ends I knew what I meant

pettaw wrote:Steering rack end of the track rod ends I knew what I meant

Yes, I was commenting to foggy's post, which is of course from other end of stick, but still good piece of information for some.. that is going to uhm change those ball joints and ehm accidentally looks into this thread

James got what I was on about with the jack.

I never ever use a ball joint spliter for track rod end as more often or not the gaitor gets damaged. Adams method is teh one I use every time - bigger the joint bigger the hammer!!

My extra little note was to point out that when fitting lowring springs there is absolutly no need to remove the leg on a 300 to do the job saving messing with the bottom joint and the track rod that can cause hassle.