Hey all,

I stumbled across a neat little trick I thought I would share. I had 2 frozen relay rod/ centerlink ends frozen to the pitman arm/idler arm. I bought a removal tool (that DID work on the other 4 tie rods) but the 2 attached to the pitman arm/idler arm just bent the tool up. I tried using PB Blaster, I tried a pickle fork, I tried "Shocking" it with a mini sledge. (I was nervous about the blow torch idea since my garage is partially carpeted with remnants). So anyhow, as I'm hammering away on the joints, it occured to me: I'm hammering against RUBBER ! All my energy is being absorbed by a steering cross arm which is suspended from the car, secured by rubber boots/bushings. I need to hammer against something SOLID! So I took the car jack out and propped it under the pitman arm/idler arm right next to the joint I was hammering and put the jack up maybe 1/2 an inch more once it felt it would start lifting the truck.. THEN after 2-3 (Solid) Whacks with a mini sledge, the joints popped loose. They had absorbed ALL the force without being able to send the vibrations down the centerlink/relay rod because the jack secured them solidly to the ground. Now this may only work on joints where the bolt is facing UP but still. That's usin' the ol' melon eh?

 

Good improvisation! Though I don't think the rubber boot was absorbing any force. The ball joint of the tie rod ends goes into a steel socket with just a little grease in between -- the rubber just holds in the grease. (And note on the idler arm and pitman arms, the boots, at least on the 555s I installed -- Raybestos Professional were 555s for me, same product, and nearly 1/2 cheaper than ordering 555 boxed 555s -- just hold a little bit of grease and the studs go into metal w/ no ball joint behind.)
Edit: just the idler arm doesn't have ball joint for me -- the pitman does and has removable zerk. Sorry I forgot.

Was your removal tool a pickle fork or a tie rod end puller that's a smaller version of the pitman arm puller? Like this, ?) For our trucks, I found the tie rod end remover like above works best for steering damper, tie rod ends, and idler arm. With the pitman puller for the pitman arm. I rented an OEM brand on for free from OReilys but will probably buy it soon -- it was only $12. I too first tried the pickle fork/BFH method based on recommendations on this forum. Combined with torch to heat the studs, it works eventually, but the pullers are SOOOO much easier, and don't destroy your boots. Between a pitman and tie rod puller, that should cover all steering/suspension needs on our truck (I haven't done my balljoints yet though, so might revise as I know one of those needs pushed out and might require the hinged metal flats version tool.)

Also, probably too late for your upgrade, but I found that Deeza tie rod ends' ball joints are at least 50% larger than anyone else's (they're stronger) and they come with zerk fittings and built in grease channels. (This picture isn't from me or my truck, but the size/build difference is similar if not actually stronger on our trucks:

Pic source: http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forum...-rod-ends.html

And here you can read about the Deeza tie rod end features and tech here (I believe they're made in Turkey, or at least that's what I remember when researching 6 months or so ago): http://www.deezachassis.com/parts_tre.html The only other I'd consider is Moog, but their quality is increasingly hit or miss as they seem to repackage as much as make their own anymore -- just replaced the wife's Honda TREs and used Moog & received a 555 and some other off brand that looked half the quality of the 555...

The only thing I have been dissatisfied with for Deeza has been their nuts. On our trucks, I tightened to near torque with their provided nuts (found if I didn't the stud in the joint spinned due to rust or other debris on the old nut giving too much friction initially without seating the tie rod end's stud in the center steering link -- and actually twisted one Deeza boot badly when doing this but surprisingly no damage), but then re-used the previous castle nuts I had as they're thicker and actually allow me to use the cotter pin holes already in the tie rod ends, instead of drilling new. I also bought Deeza sway bar end links and the heat treatment on those nuts actually warped them -- one was actually oval, so I had to buy new from from Lowe's metric hardware selection rather than return to rockauto. Otherwise, all the other hardware and material quality has been fantastic.

Also, while you're doing tie rod ends, it might make sense to go with higher strength tie rod sleeves -- the factory are weaker than I'd like and most the aftermarket ones sold by parts stores look even worse -- fortunately I live in TX so rust on my rig was minimal and between some pb blaster, running the old tie rod ends in and out to clear the rust, and using anti-seize on install, I should be good for next install. But I wish I would've known of/installed beefier ones.
Blazeland makes a tie rod sleeve kit machined from solid steel hex bar and using nuts instead of those annoying tension sleeves that *should* work with our truck -- I haven't confirmed, just bookmarked for future upgrades: http://blazeland.us/a-la-carte/
Summit racing also sells some options too...
And Blazeland also makes and idler arm brace too that's the best price I've seen an allows you to use the same idler arm that can also insert SDORI's metal bushings.

Blazeland is this member on YT: https://www.yotatech.com/members/48623.html
And then SDORI is here: http://sdori.com/pricing.htm
Or you can order them from 4crawler: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...n-lineOrdering

Hope this is helpful.

And don't forget your steering bump stops. Got mine on ebay here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/86-95-TOYOTA...-/221212994061 (clean off/smooth out the the metal strike plate on your lower A arms with a steel wire wheel, and cover both the stops and the strike plates with some grease on oil changes to extend the steering stops life).

For alignment, I find Firestone complete auto care's lifetime to be a steal -- I got mine for $150 with a coupon.

 

Update: Deeza products are made in "Turkey, Italy, Belgium and U.K" per Deeza. Not sure if this changes anything, but...
http://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls40...-in-korea.html

Another good thread on Deeza tie rod ends vs OEM and Moog: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...Number=2924978

 

I bought the smaller version of the pitman arm remover. I think the dimensions of the stock joints were a bit smaller than the gap on the puller so I couldnt really grip it from both sides. I tried putting shims in but it didn't work. Frustrated, I ordered this fancy tool online where it works like a pivot. You screw down the bolt on one side and the metal tab on the other side pushes down on the end of the bolt. It arrives Tuesday. (Not that I need it now but it may come in handy down the road) well NOW I need to get these old joints out, buy new ones and figure out how to put them in. This will be my next step. Thanks for the advice on the parts RSR !

 

That's surprising that it didn't work. I actually just used the smaller one on the idler arm only and managed to get my Northern Tool full sized pitman puller to work for the other ones by rotating it so that one tab purchased on the steering center link bar and the other arm tab grabbed the circular mount part of the link -- and I do recommend Northern Tool over Harbor Freight here, out pitman arms are on solid and the NT one is much stronger, being drop forged while Harbor Freight's is just cast and as prob most auto stores cheapos. I had to use at least 200 ft lbs of torque with a breaker bar to get that pitman to come loose.
The smaller tie rod one also did work on a control arm ball joint on the wife's Honda where I couldn't maneuver the full size pitman puller in a way to get it to work -- and yes, like you I found no good way to shim or otherwise try get these things to work if they don't mate on both tabs.

In this kit, the small tie rod puller in top right, the larger pitman arm puller in middle, and the lever one in bottom middle (think like what you ordered) should be all we need for our truck:

Also, if doing your pitman arm, be sure to use a small straight edge or ruler to line up the alignment marks. Mine had been replaced previously and they installed it one tooth off. To get the new installed correctly, I raised the truck after popping the pitman to steering center link joint and pitman to steering gear -- allowing the tires/center link to move to install. And then I lowered the truck (having also installed tie rod ends to FSM specs with equal threads on both inner and outer and for both sides and then drove on flat pavement and hard stopped, ensuring tires were straight ahead, and then pulled the steering wheel off and recentered it and torqued w/ torque wrench that nut back down before taking for an alignment. I didn't fix the steering wheel the first time I took it for an alignment, and they probably overextended the tie rod ends to sleeve where maybe 2/3 or so of an inch of the tie rod end remained in the sleeve -- scary and would have failed offroad, you could see light through more than 1/2 of the sleeve's expansion slot. So I had to pull my tie rod ends and re-do the equal threads, etc, before taking it for another alignment after fixing the steering wheel. Round 2, they just adjusted one of the tire rod sleeves by 1/4 of a turn...

 

Wanted to add some pictures of the aftermarket TREs vs Deeza.

On the truck, the difference isn't as impressive as they were on the ground before I installed.

What's clear is that where the arms join to the joint section is more robust, the ball is more robust, the construction is generally more robust, the boots are definitely at least twice as thick and are designed to release excess grease around the top seal, and they come with zerks.

I think I noted before, but I reused the old nuts instead of drilling out new holes for cotter pins in the TRE posts. The Deeza were about 1/2 the width of the old ones...

Outer:








Inner: