Usually aftermarket outer tie rods go bad due to a lack of grease, most quick lube places don't grease steering and suspension components very effectively.

 

I hear ya, I do all my own work though. Took the new tie rods & ball joints, blew out the cheap grease they come with and filled with marine grease then used silicone to seal off the pressed in caps since these are installed with zerks on top, an not on bottom that way water does not get in. Installed these all in march and have less then 10k, Oriellys didn't want to exchange them since they are still very tight. But showed them ntb's paperwork that tie rods were bad in the notes. lol

I looked at all 4 brands of tie rod ends there, premium ends have better rubber cups & thicker metal so I went with those, put them in with marine grease and sealed them up with silicone, dropped it off at ntb again. I don't think ntb likes me to well now hehe

Has anyone here had to replace inner tie rods to get an alignment to last longer?

 

Not that I've ever head of.

 

me either, took my inner tie rods out they were worn from the original oem outer tie rod on the pass side since it was not lube-ABLE. lol

you could rock the wheel back an forth and see it, causing toe in, they were an easy fix came out with vise grips. new ones in blue locktite on the rack sides, if you want inner tie rods that have a bolt patten, unlike stock and duralast units, O'Reilly's has the better ones but they don't rent a tool that fits. so you get a cheap tie rod tool set from harbor freight as you dont have to super crank them tight and the boots go back on with large zip ties for ac ducting in your attic.

went to ntb now they have a caster issue! it pulls to the right an they gave me the usual bs about no info on caster... not camber, but I put camber bolts in to kinda help them get this alignment right. never been in a wreck, lowered or high speed curb checked....

ahh a nice night of researching caster fixes

 

You might be able to hog out the upper strut mount bolts to get the desired caster you want. Usually caster means something else is bent or worn, I think the strut/spring would be a big determining factor.

 

springs are stock this is on my 2nd set of front struts this time, wish I'd bought konis for the front after reading a million posts last night about this model. Never had a spring get weak, but I'm sure it can happen.

I've seen caster kits when I used to drive fox body mustangs back in the days, I might be able to fab down or tighten up the strut town brace a bit an see if that makes any difference, I read some where that when you rotate a worn tire from toe in wear that will also cause some camber due to the uneven wear, after a few beers I'm gonna measure around the tire with a tape I might have swapped the tires left to right in the dark.

I'm not giving up till I get this right =)

 

Yes tires can affect camber if they are bad enough, not caster though. Caster is the relation of the lower ball joint to the upper ball joint, or in our case the strut mount.

 

Pulled my strut out, the mount is still in good shape less then a year old same for when the ball joint & outer tie rods were done. I did notice the stock steel wheel has less holes then the other 3 wheels, I think I might have an older neon stock steel rim, is there any off set difference?

I swapped the front wheels and the pulling to the right stopped... O.o

The new inner tie rods made a world of difference so much tighter feeling that was worth every penny =)