Loosen the castle nut to the tie rod and whack the knucle a few times with a ball-peen hammer. That should be enough to make it pop loose. Once it is loose, remove it and see how it moves. A proper tie-rod should be darn near impossible to move. If it wiggles, replace it immediately; otherwise, reinstert it and torque to specs.

 

Man that sucker is in there TIGHT. I've been hittin it with a mallet and a hammer and the PITA doesn't budge at all. I gotta take it out anyway, but i was considering outright buying a 30 dollar gear puller for it, and a ball joint fork today.

 

And a Sledgehammer. lol.

 

You don't want to damage the boot, so don't use a pickle fork unless you intend on replacing it. You don't use a gear puller either, just a tie-rod puller.

If that's the case, remove the castle nut and install the puller. Crank it down until it's tight, then rap the knuckle a few times, turn ½-turn with the puller, and rap it again with the hammer. I learned the hard way not to crank and crank on the puller because it results in a very loud BANG!

 

Well i'd use the fork for the joints, which I am replacing. The rubber boot that's suppose to be there is gone.

What was the bang sound from? something fell? lol

 

Use a Pickle Fork or a Ball Joint remover tool to get them out. I am pretty sure Autozone or anyother big parts places loans them out. Do you have a torch? If so apply some heat to it (without catching the truck on fire) and that helps sometimes. The loud bang he was refering to was either his tool breaking, or the Tie Rod poping out under pressure. Don't forget to get a allingment ASAP after replacing all these parts!

 

Yeah no kidding. I noticed my steering wheel upside down and I was thinkin awwww man lol. I'm just two or three tools away from being done. but my dad's truck broke down as well and his friend that knows these things hasn't been able to come by so i've been pretty screwed for about a week now. started this two fridays ago. bah humbug. lol

 

Hey I can't think of anything else, but is there any reason to flat out buy a ball joint/pickle fork to add to my collection? I know there's some jimmy rig type uses but for any particular purpose I can't think of any, specifically for the truck anyway.

 

well here in canada we have a store called Princess Auto...they have really cheep tools (both price and quality) tools likt that that the qualtty isent that importhant i get there ie pickle fork, all you do is hammer and pry with it the $6 one i got is the same is the $35+ ive seen, and they all work the same...

 

There is a harbor freight about 20 miles from me (though it takes 45 min to get too with all the fantastic traffic central florida offers), and it just gets back to the fact I have no transportation