New Tie Rods, should "one" be extremely stiff, one be loose?

S70Man · Post by **S70Man** » 29 May 2009, 00:45

Well, one day my rack started pukin' PS fluid out the boot so I bought a rebuilt from The Rack Doctor, thousands of positive feedback on eBay, got it cheap. That rack was fine except it started leaking fluid out of the top seal at the input shaft. He wanted a deposit to send out another and I was worried a new one, with my luck would have problems I kept topping it up but the rack has slowly deteriorated.

The Inner Tie Rods on the rack he sent felt normal to me.

Thinking I'd try something different, I ordered an A1 Cardone Rebuilt Steering Rack from Rock Auto.

Both Inner Tie Rods (which are supposed to be new) look identical but when you move one by hand, it moves freely. You move the other, it moves but you have to apply "lots of force" then it feels like it binds. I mean you have to hold the entire rack and crank on the thing pretty hard to get it to move.

Should I trust these tie rods, is it normal for them to sometimes be this uneven (one moves freely, the other stiff as hell, even after trying to move it around)? I'm worried that this could be bad enough to cause the steering feel to be off on one side.

I worked it back and fourth lots of times, all different directions (having to use lots of force, hoping it just needed to be loosened up and the grease inside would circulate but nothing no difference).

Just wondering if you guys have experienced this when buying a pair of inner tie rods, replacement rack or think this will be a problem?

Post by **Matty Moo** » 29 May 2009, 01:37

We put a set of inner tie rods on a v70 today, both were somewhat stiff, but not where they were hard to move once installed.

I'm thinking that when they re-man the racks, they replace parts that aren't within spec. Probably why your rack has a stiff new inner rod end on one side, and a looser one on the other.

I don't think I'd worry about it.

S70Man · Post by **S70Man** » 29 May 2009, 08:39

I'll go ahead and try it, hopefully that stiff one will just wear in once installed and hopefully they'll last a reasonable amount of time. cool, thanks for the input!