Looking to replace my Tie Rod Assembly and Drag Link

[breadrb]

I have been looking through threads and on the internet to find out the difficulty of replacing some of my steering assembly.

I brought my 82 240d to an alignment shop and a technician informed me that an alignment shouldn't be done on my vehicle due to a loose center link. He also informed me that changing the center link was an easy job. My questions are:

Is there anything I need to know before I proceed or is this job not too difficult? I understand difficulty is relative.

Should I also replace the Tie Rod Assembly?

Is there any order to changing any of these three parts?

Any non-obvious safety measures?

Thanks in advance and any advice is very welcome!

[compress ignite]

'Follow the FSM's (Factory Service Manual's) instructions.
Or sleuth the local library for a Mitchell's.

Count the "Turns" on each Rod End so you've as close an approximation of
the existing alignment when you're through.(All the replacement "Rods" should
be the exact same length as the ones they replace.)

Follow the Torque requirements religiously!
(NEW nuts ,don't reuse the old ones.)

I swapped out the Tie Rods and the Drag Link with the "Shock" on the SD
without ramps or lifting the chassis.

Are the TR ends "Loose" ?
(Raise the front and grab the tire fore and aft...shake ,any looseness?)
How're the TR end boots?

AND is the Drag (Center) link loose because the ends are finis?

[breadrb]

I will have to check if the TR are loose? The alignment technician told me he could not perform a alignment due to my center link being too loose. I will lift my car and check both TRs and the center link. Thanks so far for the help.

[scottmcphee]

Same story for me, the alignment guy stopped at a tie rod end, showed me the play, and said fix this first. So I did all the steering linkage, side to side, complete tie rod assemblies, centre link, and steering dampner while I was at it.

Check your front wheel bearing play and fix that if necessary too. I replaced all bearings while I was at this job, only one needed it (was making noises) but what the heck they're cheap.


It's actually quite easy to adjust the toe-in yourself after doing this job. I used a string method and got zero toe-in without having to return to alignment shop. Drives straight as an arrow. Search for some posts with my user name, and a key words: string alignment toe.


Sometimes these ball joints are pretty firmly in place and it takes some creative banging to get them out, with a pickle fork, air hammer, what have you.. read up on this art before doing it alone. Resist the temptation and don't try smashing the ball joint bolt out by hitting the bolt end...

In the end I had the alignment shop R&R the center link because I couldn't get one end of it out. I did the rest.

[winmutt]

For those stubborn tapered joints :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX7GVWcB-bg&feature=related

[breadrb]

Thanks for all the info so far! Really helpful.