Hi,

I'm in the process of installing new tie rods, center link, and idler arm...

I'm trying to tighten the bolts that connect the tie rods with the center link, but the shaft keeps spinning with the bolt. There's no way to grip the other side of the shaft because it goes into a ball joint. How do I stop the shaft from spinning and tighten it up properly?

thanks!

 

I've used vise grips to hold the tierod to the centerlink. Once this is done it forces the shaft to get more wedged into the centerlink

 

Are you using a torque wrench to tighten these nuts? If you're doing it free hand its possible you may have already tightened it enough. Only reason I say that is because I dont remember having this problem when doing the tie rods to centerlink. If you do need to tighten it further and the nut has already passed the tip of the stud you can use pliars or vice grips to hold the tip of the stud steady while you use a wrench to tighten the nut some more. This is what I had to do to tighten the top strut nut (on the strut mount). From what I remember the torque rating on the tie rod to centerlink nuts was pretty low and there should be a cotter pin to prevent the nut from backing out.

 

Make sure the tapered opening and the stud are clean and free of oil/grease. Then basically slap the two parts together. This gets the taper seated enough to prevent the stud from turning. A rubber or plastic mallet can also be used to help seat them.

Al.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions...

I tried using a c-clamp to force the two together, but no luck. The stud just spins around against the c-clamp, and the ball joint keeps bending which makes it hard to keep the clamp in place. Holding the stud with pliers also doesn't work because the stud still spins within the pliers, and the threads get stripped.

I think the specs are for 35ft/lb of torque...I know its not tight enough yet because there is still a lot of side to side "waggle" between the center link and tie rods. Is this supposed to be normal, or should it be nice and tight?

Any other suggestions?
Thanks a lot