Inner Tie Rod / Track Rod Replacement

[Gohn 68]

inherited a well used rack, (power steering 205 Si, right hand drive)

cleaned and checked it over before installing and after four years its finally got a small knock

did some checks and looks like its Left Front inner tie rod / track rod

already put new  tie rod ends on it, but never had to replace a track rod before, ever

couldn't find much discussion at all on this, nothing that made it clear anyway 

 

couple of questions before getting in

 

- is it ok to replace inner tie rod on the car or much better to just get the whole rack out and then do it ?

 

- are the part numbers for inner tie rods same both sides ?  #381295 ?

 

tia

 

 

 

Edited May 11 by Gohn

[Leslie green 97]

They are the same both sides , I got mine from retro race and rally in the uk but that wont be much good to you in Australia , you need to be able to hold the rack teeth firmly to get it unscrewed , I held the rack teeth in the vice protected by wood either side  as mine was already off the car . The little washer behind will need reused as the pas one is different I found. there are pics on my thread.

That small boot on the left in your pic has a metal ring on it and just taps off ,there was no info out there I could find on it , replacements often come with no metal ring inside and there is very little to hold it on , I had to buy twice to get a decent one.

Edited May 11 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 97]

Page 9 has pics :

 

 

 

[DamirGTI 340]

Car replace it with the rack on the car or with the rack removed as you wish .. there's spec. tool for inner tie rod replacement with the rack on the car (google "inner track rod tool") or some of the tie rods had flats on the sides so in that case you can undo them simply with a wrench .. if it's round and you do not fancy buying tool just for one go , with the grinder grind off two flats opposite of one another on the round end so you can slip the wrench in and loosen it off (do the same on new one for tightening back on) ... or can use bigger plumbers wrench/stilsons to undo/tighten back grabbing on the round end .

 

Retainer/locking ring , can do with or without it .. if there's no locking ring use red loctite threadlock or equivalent (the hardest/strongest) on the tie rod threads .

 

Yes the part No. is 381295 , for 205 they're all the same length base model and GTi and fits both left and right .. 

 

D

Edited May 11 by DamirGTI

[Gohn 68]

thanks gents !  as they say here, rack off it is then

 

not sure how it all fits together yet but will reread your tips once the rack's out of the car 

 

off to order parts which'll take a few weeks 

[Gohn 68]

need this car every day so decided against removing the rack and expanding the whole job if possible

 

but after starting it looks like the power steer ram prevents removal of the rubber boots

which prevents removal of the track rod

(the pics above of my PAS rack show the ram ring/nut Left side that prevents removal of the boots)

 

no mention of that anywhere

 

- so do I need to remove the nut/ring, PAS hydraulic ram first ?

- the new Febi track rod has spanner flats, do I still need the special tool ?

 

 

 

[Leslie green 97]

The small boot on left side just taps off, it has a metal ring inside which is what holds it on. You don't need the ram off unless you want to replace middle bellows type boot. 

[Gohn 68]

each time I start on this it is not clear how to proceed further

really need a proper idea of the process

don't have the luxury of ripping in and wrecking stuff as the parts are not available locally

otherwise I risk getting half way thru finding I need new parts from the other other side of the world

 

the only obvious things about this job are the questions it raises

 

it is not clear how to get the small outer boot off, then if I can do that what part of the rack I am gripping, what part of the track rod I am supposed to turn

haven't got to the locking washer yet either so probably some difficulty there too

 

first things first though, the boot is rubber, so if I tap on rubber with metal nothing happens, except likely it gets a hole in it

exactly what am I supposed to be "tapping"

my small outer rubber boot is in good condition, am I supposed to assume it'll get torn in removal and get a replacement before starting ?

my original track rod has spanner flats at the inner end, can they be used to remove the track rod itself or they have nothing to do with it ? 

am I supposed to have the steering turned to the extreme Left or Right ? Does that help ?

 

 

 

 

[Gohn 68]

small outer boot off...

the boot abutts the ram ring but is separate

tap down next to the ram ring with a small flathead screwdriver, this will prize the small boot away and as you then peel it back the track rod ball joint is exposed

 

turned steering to extreme right, maybe better access

 

from the outside its trackrod balljoint, then locking washer, then ram ring, then main L rack boot

there is no section of the rack to grab hold of 

undo the clip on the main boot, push the boot inward to expose the rack and hold it with pliers ?

turning the spanner flats on the track rod just spins it, so dunno if that's gunna do anything good

so maybe then undo/turn the track rod balljoint with another set of pliers ? 

 

 

 

[Gohn 68]

to try and find some part of the rack to grip undid the main boot spring clip, pushed it inward 

but doesn't look like there's anything of the rack to grip onto and hold while undoing the track rod

 

can't grip the washer and turn the track rod ball joint, that's just part of the same thing, pointless

 

the rack is bolted to the subframe so tried undoing the track rod ball joint with some pliers without holding the rack

but the rack moves too much 

 

there's no part of the rack exposed as Leslie's is above, maybe because mine's PAS  ?

 

try holding the PAS ram ring with stilsons while undoing the trackrod balljoint with some pliers ??

 

[Leslie green 97]

Mine is pas too ,you hold the rack teeth to stop it trying to bend ,this is why its far easier to do at a vice with a piece of wood either side to protecting the rack teeth out of the car ,then you grip the end of the tractrod ,the round bit with vice grips tightly and unscrew it. It will be tight as you are busting the lock washer to get it off.if you can't see the rack teeth you need to put it on full lock to expose them. Its been a while since I done it now and I had the pas ram off but I can't remember if this was necessary for to access one side .

Edited August 9 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 97]

The right side is no problem , I had a quick look but the left side there are no teeth to hold you need to hold the large diameter gold coloured  ring the pas ram bolts onto to stop it turning ,it is part of the rack and soldidly mounted to it. There is no room to hold this in situ as it sits down in the subframe so my advice would be to drop the subframe unbolt the rack talk it out and remove the pas ram and clamp that large ring in the vice to hold it and undo the trackrod with vice grips

Edited August 9 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 97]

 

 

 

Edited August 9 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 97]

You can see in bottom left of your pic above the large ring is part of the rack and doesn't come off and there are no teeth on the left side . 

Edited August 9 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 97]

 

Good pic here from Mr firepro, I think the reality is pas racks cannot be done in situ only non pas racks 

Edited August 9 by Leslie green

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

Get hold of the outer bit of the track rod inner joint with a pipe wrench and undo it. The main rack bar will not turn enough to stop you doing so as its constrained by the pinion. The job is not really any different than doing a manual rack. You only need to move it a small amount to overcome the lock washer and then it will undo the rest of the way by hand.

[Gohn 68]

thanks gents, that's encouraging

for now I've put the small boot back on to drive around

 

got a good pair of cobras, some vice grips, a bloody great stilson-ish pair of grips, and (yes AND) a $20 universal trackrod removal tool on its way !

 

avanother crack at it today

 

 

 

[Gohn 68]

worked ! 

took some pictures but can't get em off the dud phone

 

- jack up, remove wheel

- undo the tie rod end from hub but leave it in the track rod

- turn steer wheel to right seems to give bit better access to the trackrod ball joint/rack down thru engine bay

- prize off the small rubber boot from where it abutts the PAS ram ring using a flathead (then bend boot back to expose track rod ball joint)

- grip the track rod ball joint and turn it out. I used a set of Knipex cobra pliers which are great, (but as suggested above you could also try vice grips, stilsons, uni track rod tool or grinding flats onto the ball joint for a spanner). as tom says, when I turned the ball joint out the rack does move a little, but the track rod did not seem to be in super tight, there was no threadlock and it wound out fine with only a little resistance from the stop washer 

- wind in new track rod with new stop washer (my old one was totally undamaged so could easily have reused it). I wound it in using the spanner flats on the track rod, so it went in until the nice new stiff ball joint started to rotate, then used pliers again on the ball joint to try and tighten a bit further but that was all. did not use any threadlock

- measure tie rod end setting and take it out of the old track rod and screw it into the new one at the same setting

- reattach the tie rod end to the hub and put your wheel back on

 

its actually an easy job, and good access

my only concern is whether I've screwed the new track rod in tight enough, better keep on eye on it for a bit

this is for Left side on a PAS rack. haven't needed to do the Right side yet

 

thanks much to D, Tom and Leslie

 

if access getting a set of pliers down thru engine bay is harder for other models (mines a DTurbo) the uni tool might help as it goes in thru wheel arch 

 

Edited August 11 by Gohn

[Gohn 68]

pics

 

old track rod with the boot drawn back from the PAS ram ring

 

the end of the rack where the track rod screws in

 

new track rod

 

and new track rod and stop washer wound into the rack

 

the end of the rubber boot has a metal ring in it which presses onto the 4mm ledge which is part of the PAS ram ring