Greetings, eh?

I just pulled out the old tie rods from my 1989 190D 2.5, but I'm having a problem putting the new ones in.

The bolts on each tie rod end go where they're supposed to go, but when I try to fasten the nuts, they don't get any tighter. When I squeeze the tie rod end up against what I'm attaching it to, more threads are revealed, but no matter how many times I turn my ratchet, it doesn't get any tighter. It keeps spinning and spinning, feeling a little torque, but never getting harder to turn. After I turn the ratchet 10 or 15 times, I take a look at the bolt end, but no more of it is sticking out of the nut than before I started. This is happenning on both ends of both left and right tie rods; the chances of me cross-threading all four of those bolts is next to nil.

Before I installed them, I took the plastic caps off of each end and tested hand-tightening the nut. The nut would only go on so far with hand tightening, but not go any further down the threads.

I'm only using hand ratchets; no impact tools, but I am tempted to get my drill to see how long I can spin the damn nut for.

Any advice? Has this happened to anyone else before?

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1995 E300D, 253000+ km - babied by PO, let's hope I do the same...

1989 190D 2.5, 450000+km - first MB I've owned. Bought at 396000km, and now parked.