My truck pulls to the right. i went to STS and they told me that i need to replace tie Rod ends and than they can do aliment and than they can figure out why it pulls to the right.
and replacing tie rod ends gonna cost me 450$. i have haynes books, and its look like its not to hard to replace it my self.
any advices for me?
i would really appreciate it.
Thank you!

 

for sure do it yourself. Midas told me $220, I was done with it in my garage before they were ready to work on it. going to need to rent tools from an auto store. i forget what it's called, but it's something like a C clamp. probably tie rod puller or something like that (the fork did not do it on my truck).

 

throw that book in the garbage. It's not really hard at all if you know a few things. Heres a vid that kinda gives you some incite on how to change them but its a dakota. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6DSjQ0F6j0

 

I wish my tie rod was that easy to take off (reffering to the part where he just hit it off with a hammer).

 

Most tierods can be hit with a hammer to be removed. A nice gentle blow with a 5lb sledge will pop it right out. DON'T COUNT THREADS. Period. many people telly you to. Not gonna happin' Captin'. Better off taping it at that point. You need measure from the center of the tierod balljoint part to an line that you marked(can be anywhere on the inner tierod, or you can measure off the inner tierod end itself. The new one should be the same measurement before you screw it down. This will give you a much closer measurement for getting to the alignment shop. I have done this numerous times and have had people tell me they haven't even needed an alignment. You should get one anyways, although i ran my stratus 12kmi on new tierods I've changed without and alignment using that method. Straight as an arrrow, not steering twitch or pulls. No tire wear either. If it were on my truck i would have had an alignment.

That's for outers. Inners and outers i would take off at the same time. Don't tough the threads. Measure from center to center on the joints and make the new one's the same.

 

You COULD get an alignment after changing the outer tie rod ends, but its a damn good waste of money. As long as your careful, like in this video, using the lock nut as the stopper, by simply just cracking it loose, and then threading the new end on til it hits the nut, the doing a half turn to tighten it, you really don't need an alignment. Nothing will be off, you didnt move anything. Hell if someones that picky they might as well get an aligment once a week due to rough road conditions lol. Plus you did the job for $15 and then you go blow $75 on an aligment, now its a $90 job lol.

 

Hell, around here cheapest place is $89 for any place that has nice equipt, not all crappy used up like most Midas and Monroe's. Some of those guys go years before they have a specialist come in and re-level and recalibrate everything. At that point, you'd be better off not going...lol

 

The last alignment I got after I cranked my T-Bars was $60 at a very well known shop around here.

 

Thanks a lot to everyone!!! very helpful!!!

 

I just has my front end done after I did my lift and it was $50. However, if a shop quoted me $450 I would certainly be changing them out myself.