Inner tie rod Q

[drddan]

I am doing the inner tie rods, for the fist time, as the right inner failed safety inspection.

How do you tell a bad inner tie rod? Is it going to be loose and have play in it? Haynes, as usual, is not much help.

I have to remove the boot and get to the ...what is it ...a U joint?? I haven't seen what is under the boot yet, thought i'd ask and maybe get some pointers on doing it, before I delve in.

I was searching around, but not finding what I needed, but I did find out that the inners of the 1988/89 yrs are different from the 90/93 yrs!

Carefull! I found some McPart stores had the same part number for all yrs and it wasn't for 88/89 yrs!

[drddan]

Okay, looking closer at pics of the inner tie rod, it looks to be a "ball" joint at the one end of the rod. Can anyone confirm?
I have the AC Delco inners on order from RockAuto.

If you have a 90-93, the inners are way cheaper, than for the 88-89!

[Chobobulous]

I just did mine. It took maybe 10 minutes a side after the knuckle was apart. You will need a 24 mm wrench and whatever is needed to take outer tie rod off. 17? Mm socket.
After tire was removed I disconnected the outer tie from the steering knuckle. On the passenger side I turned the wheel so that its making an almost complete right turn. On the drivers side it will be turned the opposite way. I did this so that it would be easier to wrench off.

Remember to count the number of spins it takes to take the outer tie rod off so you can get your alignment close.

If you would like photos of the tie rod I can go snap one real fast.

[william]

Don't listen to the auto parts store there's definitely different trust me lol. I like to use a pipe wrench on mine the older 88-89 are square nut and hard to get good torque on with an open wrench.
Do as chobob said but have a pipe wrench handy just in case.
My auto zone order the wrong part twice for my car (I use a 88-89 rack in my car) so I went with rock auto. Raybestos last pretty good.

[drddan]

Yeah, if you are buying inners for 88/89, you know by the price! They are higher priced for the 88/89's!
Mcpart stores want $57 dollars for 88/89
Even high on RockAuto. $25 for 88/89 and $10 for 90/93

I have the correct ones coming from RockAuto

[Movin]

Center your steering wheel then measure your toe so you can put it back the same. If your tire wear is excessive then you can set the toe or get it close and let a shop set the toe. Use a little loctite. Have fun!!