killowatt

yesterday my tie rod just kind of fell off while i was driving! needless to say I about shat myself... so, how big of a job is this? and any recommendations on what else needs to be replaced/inspected to help keep me in control?
1990 3vze manual

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

Depends on where it "fell off". Did it break? Threads pulled out? Is the truck wheeled hard? Is something bent? Not tight? Etc etc.

We need more information besides "my tie rod fell off".

What needs to be inspected? EVERYTHING! If parts are falling off your truck, you have a BIG problem.

killowatt

sorry that was a really poor description on my part. the only offroading its done is driving in some grassy parking lots. It looks like the threads just snapped off of the end on the wheel side, its a clean fracture and nothing else looks to be bent or otherwise damaged. only minor rust on the threads by where it broke. i dont recall hitting anything recently.

combatcarl

Tie rod or relay rod? If it's relay rod, should contact toyota, see if you're under the relay rod recall, if they're even still doing that. Just the first thing that came to mind..

scope103

Replacing a tie rod isn't particularly difficult. http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...g/16steer0.pdf You'll need a tie-rod puller http://www.harborfreight.com/tie-rod...ller-1752.html . They can be rented, but as you can see they're not particularly expensive. (Whatever you do, don't use a "pickle fork" http://www.harborfreight.com/16-inch...ator-1759.html or you will forever be branded an amateur!) You will need to have the alignment re-done after you replace (or do anything to) the tie rod or tie rod end.

The reason all of us are pretty nervous about this advice is that tie rods are pretty much the LAST piece you would expect to just fall off. They are engineered consistent with the consequences of a failure; they're beefy! You need to do the best that can be done to figure out why this happened, and if it bent something else on the way. You might not get a second chance to tell us about a massive steering failure.

Badger62811

haha that's signature worthy right there.

B-Fake

I just recently replaced mine, both sides, inner and outer, and it was pretty straightforward. I just used a two jaw gear/pulley puller 'cause that's what I had and it worked fine. For the stubborn ones I just used a propane torch and a few taps with a hammer and they popped right off. Then just put the new ones on with equal amounts of thread showing on each side of the adjustment tube thingy and do an alignment.

Here's a great write-up for DIY alignment by a fellow YotaTecher
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f128...ite-up-163666/

Hope this helps.

Oh yeah, and x2 on inspecting everything in your steering linkage. I would replace ALL of the tie rods and definitely inspect the idler arm, pitman arm, etc., probably the ball joints too. When stuff like this just FALLS OFF it can lead to a very bad day.