Jam Nut Siezed On Inner Tie Rod Shaft

I went out this morning to get my steering wheel properly centered by adjusting the tie rods but the first one I went after on the driver's side has the jam nut frozen to the tie rod shaft. I can loosen the nut but the shaft spins with it. I hit it with some penetrating fluid and put a little heat on it, but the 15mm wrench doesn't have enough grip on the flats to avoid rounding over the edges.

Short of putting a couple of pairs of vise grips on the shaft or splitting the nut off, is there any tool that will give me enough grip without mangling the shaft? Or perhaps I can just get say three more 15mm combination wrenches to give me enough width?

 

Try a quality spud wrench.

 

Having never heard of a spud wrench before, the first thing that came to mind (pre-coffee, mind you) was “Is that a wrench made of potatoes, or for potatoes?“ Google to the rescue. Assuming you mean one of the adjustable ones, are they any different than a good crescent wrench? Also saw some pipe wrenches so named.

As it stands now, I went with my third option, which involves the use of four 15mm combination wrenches that I bought on eBay. I’m going to duct tape those puppies together and see if that will give me the grip I need.

 

I use a pipe wrench.

Take a picture of the 15mm's lined up if it works haha.

 

Will do!

After I had slightly marred the shaft with the single wrench, I did think that it’s not the kind of shaft that’s going to be harmed if it gets a few teeth mark on it, so I almost went for a pipe wrench. But I just hate the idea of doing that even if it doesn’t really matter.

 

Professionally speaking, the marring isn't the issue. Heating or over leveraging the tie rod is.

So a reasonable heat with leverage is the ideal.

Tundras are the biggest bastards, 30mm nuts lol they seize on for dear life.

 

AeroKroil once a day for 5 days and ill bet that nut comes loose easy.


Then back it off to expose the threads and apply antiseize!

 

My collecting to get me through those ah shit moments. you can also put as long of a pipe you need to extend the leverage on these types of wrenches. spud is on the top right. The spud will be good if you have some flats on there you don't want to destroy, IMO I save a pipe wrench for something that nothing else works on as you're more than likely going to marr the flats up.

 

torch just the nut carefully propane

 

Yep use the hot wrench

 

That looks like a good amount of flat surface area on that wrench. It would probably do the trick. Thanks for the pic, definitely helps.

 

Indeed, along with my multi-wrench setup and some more penetrating fluid, I ought to be able to coax it loose. Heat wasn't enough last time when all I had was a relatively thin 15mm wrench to grab the inner rod.

 

every tool has it's purpose, and any tool can also be used as a hammer . If I were you I'd also heat the hell out of it first using MAP gas or propane as suggested. You want that bitch cherry red.

 

If I need heat I going for a Oxy- Fuel Torch I have never seen straight propane heat anything Cherry Red .

If you have a secret I would love to know .

So your ones of those that use the Cutting Torch for a hammer.

 

I'm going to go get a new torch too. I've got a basic Benzomatic that must have a constriction somewhere; not a very forceful/focused flame coming out of it (tank still half full tho). Cherry red is not in the cards with this one.

 

With the four wrenches on there and a piece of scrap to hold 'em, got 'er done. A little penetrating fluid and some muscle (such as it is) and I got it backed off enough to make the adjustment.



Thanks for all of the suggestions and encouragement. But I think I'll get a nice wrench like @6 gearT444E has for a more general-purpose solution in the future.

 

I must say I like the first Generation Setup much better with a real nut.

Worse case use a cut off wheel to relieve tension on the nut and replace the nut