[T3] Tie Rods

[William J]

 I did mine using a pickling fork I rented from auto zone. Mine is a very 
late model 73 T-3 SB . I didn't have the rust isues yet a fork will pop out 
the tie rod ends and allow you to use the spares you have.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J. Jonik" <j_jonik at yahoo.com>
To: <type3 at vwtype3.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 5:52 PM
Subject: [T3] Tie Rods


> Replacing bad wheel-end ball joint on driver side tie-rod...Not easy.
>
> After maybe decades of use, the ball joint took clever and heavy banging 
> to  finally get out of its hole...by lowering car onto a pipe standing up 
> from the street...propped under tie-rod end...then Liquid Wrench squirts 
> and hammer banging on the heavy metal holding the ball joint...which came 
> out eventually.
>
> But then that ball joint end section of the tie rod Would Not unscrew from 
> it hollow metal tube. Clamp loosened, of course.  Holding the other tie 
> rod end tight with 1 inch combo wrench, heat, and plenty of Liquid 
> Wrench...and Very Firm grab on ball joint section with big vice grip...did 
> nothing.  Tried big monkey wrench, WITH breaker bar instead of vice grip 
> on ball joint. Still nothing.
>
> The tie rod tube has a split separation at the end...good for entry of 
> Liquid Wrench maybe, but no tool comes to mind to slightly part that 
> separation to loosen the 45 year old rust-locked thread.    The ball joint 
> would NOT unscrew from the tie rod tube...even using 2 ft breaker bar on 
> the monkey wrench...and holding the other end solid with that 1 inch 
> wrench.
>
> So...question now is...how the heck to adjust toe in...OR replace tie rod 
> ball joint...if the things simply will not unscrew from each other?   If 
> there are tricks of the trade for OLD cars...they aren't in the manuals.
>
> Since some spare tie rod assemblies are in my parts collection...would it 
> be better to just replace the whole tie rod, including the ball joints at 
> both ends?  The "easy" job of just replacing the damaged wheel end ball 
> joint has come up so far as impossible.
>
> Can't imagine the job of getting the inner end ball joint out of its 
> hole...if replacing the whole tie rod (w/ both ball joints) is advised.
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