Turning/adjusting tie rod ends

[HIGHFIVEBETA]

Does anybody know exactly how many turns (approximately) it takes to install set of standard sized tie rod ends? OEM inner/outer. I'm having trouble properly adjusting and keeping my wheels straight? :(

Any approaches to properly adjusting? HALP!

[di-devol]

Just eyeball it close then get an alignment.

[hardparkd]

when changed my tie rods i counted the number of turns it took to remove them, i believe it was somewhere between 22-30 turns :dunno:
just make sure the steering wheel is in the straight/centered position then do what di-devol said.

[holslut s13]

There are many factors to take into account, you can't just go off how many turns someone else did.

In the end you will need an alignment anyways. You can do this to get it sorta close. Make sure the steering wheel is straight, and with the rack boots off, measure how far the actual rack is coming out of the PS housing. I just did my inner/outer/PS rack rebuild today and It is about 2.5" on each side. But still check yours! And just make sure the steering rack protrudes the same distance on both sides.(Now you know the rack and wheel is centered) Then start threading your outer ball joints on, and after you start threading them on, insert the balljoint into the knuckle and try to get the rotor to be as parallel to the car as possible one side at a time. Also don't move the rack.

[Issa__40__]

is there a special trick to breaking lose the adjustment bolt? shits on there super tight but maybe i just dont have enough leverage with the car being on jack stannds

[derass]

Do you mean jam nut? Honestly, the ball-joint of the outer tie rod will lock everything up when you wrench on it and allow you to break the jam nut free.

As for the DIY alignment, I used to do front-wheel and 4-wheel alignments this way: http://www.negative-camber.org/jam149/technical/alignment.html

Then I got a set of Longacre toe-plates to quickly do the front only. Replace an inner tie rod and align at the track in like 30 min. Or just do a quick toe-alignment check before heading out for a track day. I found that the rear toe never changed, no matter how hard I drove.