W201 190D 2.5 - Tie rod nuts not seating
 

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?

W201 tie rod end not seating
 

Hi, if you are using a Nyloc nut use first a regular one to pull the stubby part
down. Also, degrease both area. When seated changed nuts. Some units
can also be held with an Allen. Or may be a large clamp to press pieces together.
Good Luck

Figured it out when I got back outside. ^)_(^

My tie rods had holes for hex keys in the top. I managed to get three of them torqued down significantly, but the fourth one I could only get halfway done before I rounded out the hex hole.

I drove it anyway, just to see how it did. It definitely needs an alignment so hopefully the alignment shop will be able to retorque all of the nuts despite my mistake. I imagine this means I'll have to buy another tie rod end, though.

Time to look into finding one of those "lifetime alignment" deals in Edmonton...

I should've asked this earlier...

I'm just going to replace that tie rod end that has the buggered-up ball joint, I think. However, I can choose from left-hand-thread or right-hand-thread.

The end that's messed up is the one that connects to the wheel on the driver's side. I think that one's right-hand-thread. Am I right? I've got a 50-50 chance of ordering the right part blind.

Edit: I oriented my track rods according to the manual: "The ball joint secured with the tapered clamping ring must be fixed to the steering control arm on the steering knuckle side". That's the end with the nut that you screw onto the middle of the assembly.

The pics and manual don't even say which end is LHT or RHT.