I pulled the bearing bracket and replaced the rubber bushings and track rod mount. Now, when I go to reinstall it the threaded shaft that the track rod goes into is seized. It's a brand new part. Any suggestions on how to break it loose so Can turn it to thread it into the track rod ? Thanks !

microtoad,
Here is my experience with this project. I just finished rebuilding the front end on my junker 85 380SE 250K.

Lower ball joints were completely shot, tie rods were very worn, steering damper was no good, upper ball joints were fair, torsion bar bushings were in poor shape, center drag link was fair, rotors and bearings in acceptable condition. Idler arm was OK and front shocks are very tired. The track rods were completely rusted out, it's a miracle they stayed in the socket, boots gone. Here's what happened, this of course is the story of my experience and not meant as a guide to front end repair.
1. jacked up front of car on both sides, blocked rear wheels with sturdy homemade wooden wheel chocks. placed jack stands under car body at proper points and placed another set of jack stands under lower control arm.
2. placed heavy steel 9mm chain around both coil springs for added safety.
3. removed wheels, rotors, tied up brake caliper to torsion bar with wire to get it out of the way.
4. removed upper control arm bolts, disconnected upper ball joint with tie rod/ball joint separator tool. Check tension and support of lower control arm to make sure coil spring didn't pop out at 200mph.
5. removed lower tie rod from steering knuckle with tie rod separator tool.
6. removed lower ball joint from lower control arm, took entire steering assembly to a machine shop to have old pressed out and new ball joints pressed in. cost me $160 for labor.
7. removed upper control arm from torsion bar, replaced upper control arms. i didn't replace the torsion bar bushings but probably should have.
8. installed steering assembly with new lower ball joints to secure coil spring again before continuing. connecting upper and lower ball joints to control arms.
9. removed drag links and tie rods and steering damper.
10. removed track rod, this was the really nasty part. it took me 2 days. I had to drill a couple of holes in the track rod (it's hollow) and fill it full of PB Blaster, then use a 12 inch pipe wrench to get the damn things off.
11. next i beat the old track rod joint out of the assembly, it was completly rusted out and had bonded to the aluminum. I wirebrushed the assembly clean then pressed in the new track rod joints using the car's weight as a press combined with a hollow 2 inch jackstand as the jig.
12. i spent a hot afternoon trying to get the whole thing back together and finally did it. I got so mad at one point i hit my car with my fist and made a dent in the side (to go along with the others).
13. i used the mb car jack to press the lower control arm out far enough to get room to start the threads on the track rod.
14. i replace the tie rod ends and the center drag link w/ steering damper.
15. put everything back together, brakes, wheels, then lowered the car so the tires touched the ground with about 100 lbs of weight.
16. placed a taught string from each rear wheel to a jackstand about 6 feet in front of the car opposite each front wheel. using this string about 6 inches from the ground i did a pre-alignment of the wheels so i could drive it.
i set the toe in to about 1/16 inch from back to front of the front tires.
17. the car handles much better now.

DJB2000, thanks for the insight. I started this project with a simple replacement of the upper control rod because the ball joint was bad. It went so well that I thought i would replace the rubber in the bearing brackets. Again, no problems. I got the bracket off, pressed out the rubber bushings with a vice and installed new ones. Made a home made hydraulic press by turning my floor jack on its side and pressing out the track rod mount. Cleaned it up and pressed in the new one, again no problem. Then it was time for reassembly and this is where the s#%& hit the fan....

The usual problem of no room to thread in the track rod mount was a major PIA. In the process I realized the threaded end of the mount (not the track rod) is seized in the rubber. No way it will turn. So, to get around the problem I removed the spring (had to buy a Klann style spring compressor on eBay). Butchered the outer tie rod end in the process and eventually got the track rod out. I will thread the rod in on the floor and then install the rod/breacket assembly as one piece then connect the forward end of the rod.

All in all this has been an expensive, painful, and lengthy process. No plans on doing the right side at all. Any one thinking of diving in to rework the front suspension be prepared. I will hopefully have it back together tomorrow.

Anyway, my original question is if any one has seen the threaded end of the track rod mount (brand new) seized. My guess is it is an old part (ordered from Performanc Products) that has just aged into rigor mortise on the shelf.

Thank God for PB Blaser and long breaker bars !!!

Sorry for the rant but it been a long hot day on the garage floor !!!

DJB200, interesting comment about using the car jack to push the lower arm forward. I would appreciate it if you could describe the process a bit...

P.S. Your overhaul sounds as enjoyable as mine. Glad it all worked out for you !

Microtoad,

Here is what I did to re-install the track rod joints.

After replacing the joints, i noticed they were VERY stiff. I placed the track rod assembly in a vice and turned the joint with a large wrench about 100 times to loosen it up a bit (so i could thread it).

To get enough room to re-install the threaded end into the track rod, i used the mb screw jack to push the lower control arm away from the track rod joint. I wedged it between the body frame above the track rod assembly and the shock absorber. I screwed the threaded joint into the track rod just about all the way. Hope that helps.

DJB2000....Thanks for the info. I was going to finish it this weekend but it looks like I'm off to Albuquerque until Tuesday so it will have to wait.