Tie Rods. Symptoms / best cost replacements

So I believe I need new tie rods. Inner or outer? I dont know... How can I tell?

Driver side is hard to turn by hand. Passenger side, I can turn fairly easy by hand. Would that be inner or outer?

I did the tack weld mod on the steering shaft and just put new Energy Susp. rack bushings in. Still have play in steering.

Should I just replace both inner and outer on both sides and be done?

What are good cost replacements? I have seen prices all over the board. I know moog is decent but I hear to stay away from their ball joints so I'm not sure.

Thoughts?

I need new tires coming up soon, so I want to get this all taken care of so I can get proper alignment before new tires.

 

About all I can say, is I get the duralast ones from AutoZone. Lifetime warranty. If it goes bad just take in the old one and get a new one freeeeeeee! I buggered up the threads on one and they told me to bring it in to get my money back...

Of course I would probably get some decent inners. Those are a bitch to replace. Outers tie rods as well as ball joints I use the duralast. They really aren't that bad. Unless you do a lot of wheeling or 'prerunning'. Then I'd be more cautious on what brand I'd get in that case.

 

I'm a firm believer in OEM. Pay a little more but they are far superior. I put Smakei 555 outer tie rods on and they lasted 2 months before the grease boot deteriorated and started leaking grease. How many miles are them? I had over 200,000 miles on my oem tie rods. They still seemed ok but I replaced anyway for peace of mind. What's the tack weld mod?

 

What do you mean by turn? Turning to adjust is the only reason to turn the the rods.

If the end is worn, you will feel slop in the ball. The inner has a ball as well, but you need to pull back the bellow to see if it has slop.

 

This goes for me as well. Outer tie rods will have some play in the ball joints and will be loose. You will have to take off the tie rods and get to the inners to check them. But the same goes for those. I replaced mine and they weren't that hard. You can use a pipe wrench if needed but I would recommend one of these. http://www.lislecorp.com/divisions/products/?product=530&division=1&category=2 It's the 42mm for our trucks I believe. That said I would start with outer. Inner ends are very heavy duty and after 120k mine were still solid as a rock. Or you can go get a huge crescent wrench that will open to 42mm. I have a 12 inch that falls just short. I was just going to do the inner only but I screwed up the threads on one and ended up doing new ones anyway. They are cheap, go OEM on the outer.

Inner rods...

http://tps.toyotaofdallas.com/parts/2001/Toyota/Tacoma/DLX/?siteid=214074&vehicleid=69994§ion=STEERING&group=STEERING%20GEAR%20%26%20LINKAGE&subgroup=STEERING%20GEAR%20%26%20LINKAGE&component=Inner%20tie%20rod

outer

http://tps.toyotaofdallas.com/parts/2001/Toyota/Tacoma/DLX/?siteid=214074&vehicleid=69994§ion=STEERING&group=STEERING%20GEAR%20%26%20LINKAGE&subgroup=STEERING%20GEAR%20%26%20LINKAGE&component=Outer%20tie%20rod

I get all my parts here, they beat almost any dealer in price. Trust me I have three Toyota dealerships less than 15 miles away to check. I have the added benefit of them being 15 miles away. But they do ship, and they are AWESOME to deal with. They are the same people who do trdparts4u and are in the same building. http://trdparts4u.toyotaofdallas.com/Scripts/default.asp

 

I would stick with OEM for the tie rods and ball joints. I bough Moog ball joints and I got CarQuest tie rods with lifetime warranty and dont have any complaints yet. To check the outers, jack the truck up and center and lock the steering wheel. Put your hands in the 9 and 3 position and yank on them. If there is play, then they are bad. As well as check for the boot being messed up or any grease around that area

 

By turn, I mean grab the tie rod and can rotate it back and forth by hand. Driver side is hard to move but I'm able to. Passenger side is fairly easy to rotate.

Tac weld mod... Pulling the steering column and slapping on a tac weld on the shaft and slip joint to stop slip. Search steering play weld or something like that. Lots will show up.

 

^Where exactly are you grabbing and turning? It almost sounds like backing nuts are loose....

 

You can check the inner this way as well. Just replaced my inner with moog. Also while you have it jacked up its not a bad idea to put your hands at 12 and 6 and check your wheel bearings.

OEM are definitely superior. Somewhere there is a thread talking about how the ball joints are made. Moog was metal on metal and OEM has a bushing in it I believe. This was for the lower bj's but I'd imagine any bj would be similar.

 

Here is a pic (NOT my truck.. just for example)

The whole bellows boot and everything rotates together. (within the outer tie rods range of motion at the joint...) So I assume the inner is rotating as well. Should there be no motion at all?

I know moog is bad for ball joints... im not replacing those, just tie rods. Still would not recommend them for that? What about just napa's or such? I'll have to look into it more.. I dont drive the truck but maybe 5k a year, if that.

I have no torn or damaged boots on the outers...

 

^Oh, ok. So you are just rocking it back and forth, feeling for resistance. I'm not expert, but here's my take. The resistance you feel will be directly correlated with the "tightness" of the ball joint on your outer tie rod end, then. I wouldn't worry about how hard it is to move it by hand, as long as there isn't slop when you turn the wheel. Have a friend rock your steering wheel back and forth and watch to see if there is lateral deflection in the joint itself. As long as it isn't loose, you're ok.

 

Thanks! Yeah, it was hard to explain.. pics help. Yes, just rocking back and forth. Sounds good! I will have to try that test and grabbing the wheel test.

 

Some pics would help. Really I think the outers will have physical appearance of wear before anything else.