thook

Matt, if you have any rust on the adjusters, start spraying them down pronto...hehe. Last TRE replacement I'd done on my '86 was a nightmare. I had to cut the TRE's off, first of all. Used a circular saw a metal cutting wheel. Then, had to use pipe wrenches and long cheater bars to break the adjusters loose. Cleaning the adjusters up afterwards was no fun, either. Lots of penetrant and back and forth/loosening and tightening with the old TRE's. I cut several notches along the threads to make them chasers. It worked real well, but it was a long, tedious process. I hope you have much better luck...

Matt16

I already had my fun with the sleeves. I basted them up with Moovit (like PB Blaster) then roasted them with my propane torch after soaking the propane cyl in hot water. Then I bent the sleeve slit ends open with a hammer and chisel. I worked them back and forth until now i can turn them by hand

lovetharunner

I would highly recommend getting a Pitman puller. My tie rods were a piece of cake to remove with the puller. I picked up a Pitman puller from Autozone for $12 (which I now remember you only have NAPA up in Canada). The Pitman puller is big enought to get over the tie rod knuckle.

I didn't bother trying to unscrew the tie rod end from the sleeve. I got some good advice from this forum to buy new inner & out tie rods with new sleeves. Made it really easy to dial in my new tie rods dimensionally. I could put them side by side to make sure they were the same length.

Good luck!

Matt16

Good advice. Too late though, I already bought one! None of the tie rod pullers looked big enough to fit over the knuckle, and the pitman arm puller was.

I still had to use a pickle fork after i cranked the puller as hard as I could with an 8" socket wrench. i could have found a pipe to use as an extension I suppose. It made a really good bang when it let go. The pitman arm puller should also work on the inner TREs and idler arm as well.

I'll post a vid later of the rod ends, one is so loose it funny. Reminds me of a child's rattle.

lovetharunner

My outer tie rod was the same way. I cannot believe how loose my ball joint was.

How was your truck on the highway before the fix? The reason I knew I had a problem was because my truck would start to swerve slightly without moving the steering wheel when there was a change in pavement going 55+. I jacked up the truck and could move my driver's side tire about 1/4" back and forth without moving the passenger's tire.

I took it out on the highway today for the first time since the repair. Had it aligned by Les Schwab over the weekend. It seems much more stable now. I am noticing that it still tends to swerve in the same spots on the highway but now my steering wheel will turn with the swerve. Maybe that is just because of my oversized tires.

Matt16

It wasn't bad on the hwy, just not great. Undulation in pavement caused the truck to change direction a bit.