|
|
Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 21:28:04 :
In Reply to: Help with Stuck Tie Road Stud posted by John (in NH) [64.140.203.2] on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 12:00:20 :
It's funny this topic came up today. I had to move the M37 so thought I'd jack up the front end and wiggle the tires and see if there was any obvious reason for that extreme brake pulsation I described a couple months ago. Turns out the driver's side tie rod end nut was about 1/4" away from being tight and so the whole tapered part was wobbling around a lot. I was surprised to find an intact cotter pin in it. Some previous mechanic must have just not bothered to tighten it much. When I went to tighten the nut, I had the same problem you described. I have a spare NOS tie rod end on hand, but didn't want to use it on this beater truck if I didn't have to so I needed to get the nut off the old one. I put a jack under it and jacked the taper up hard into the arm, but it still spun, which is not surprising if it's been wobbling around all these years. I soaked it in kroil, let it set a while, and the not still wouldn't turn without turning the stud. Finally I put an air wrench on it, and that did the trick. An air wrench is good for all kinds of things where you don't want the main part to turn while you turn the nut or bolt. I squirted some more kroil on it, ran the nut up and down a few times with the air wrench until it ran smooth, cleaned the threads with gasoline and a brush, and then put the nut back on for real. It went down so far that the hole for the cotter pin was above the top of the nut, but I bent the ends of the pin down and maybe they'll catch. If not, when it comes loose again, I'll put a couple washers under the nut. It's amazing the stuff you can get away with on an old army truck that would kill you on a new car driving down the freeway at 80 mph.