Thread: Tie rod ends

I recently bought a pile of tie rod ends to replace the lot on the Defender. At the shop I was offered three options, two of a higher price, and a third - QH brand - considerably cheaper. Fella selling them told me most go for one of the more expensive brands, but neither of us could work out what the issue was with the cheapies. I eventually decided on the cheapies because the came with a zerk for a grease gun in place and the others didn't.

It seemed to me at the time that the ability to grease the tie rod ends would be a bloody good thing and make up for a possible quality difference.

Got around to doing the back two this afternoon, no more than the usual trouble getting the old ones off or the new ones on to the rod. Problems started when I tried to do the buggers up.

The cheapie tie rod ends come with Nyloc nuts not castellated nuts and split pins. This makes it bloody difficult to get the nut going at all, I ended up with all kinds of spinning and swearing and ugly things holding the shaft still while I tighted it up the small amount that is required. Of course, the only place to hold the shaft is right where the boot wants to sit so a little bit difficult to hold it still without butchering the boot or dropping the boot retaining spring off the boot.

Now it could just be I got one dodgy one out of the three that I bought. The front tie rod end went on fine, the other rear one spun a bit, but had enough stiffness to get it sorted, so it was only the one out of three that was a real problem. I can't really think of a good way to get around it, I thought of replacing the Nyloc with two nuts and some Loctite, but that would just cause problems at the other end, although I wouldn't be too concerned about butchery getting them off, but why make future trouble for yourself if you don't have to?

So, seems to me that the more expensive tie rod ends without the zerks, but with the castellated nuts and splits pins are the go.

Cheers
Simon

After a rest and some food I discovered a LEVER! And a jack. Made it all much easier.

Fixed my grease gun at the same time. Why are grease guns so hateful?

Grease guns and that irritating bugger of a thing that injects oil into the diffs are my least favourite.

Cheers
Simon.