Hey all. This is probably a stupid question...

I ordered the kit from 1Aauto to replace my tie rods, center link and idler arm and installed it myself last week. Wasn't that hard actually.

I tried to get my tie rods to be similar in length to the previous ones, however my steering wheel was slightly off before, so it's still off now (obviously) .

Took it to get an alignment today, as planned. Mechanic asked me if I did the swap myself, then said the tie rod on the drivers side was all the way in (no room for adjustment) whereas the passenger side was the opposite.

​​​​​​Told me he didn't have time to pop off the tie rods and adjust them, and if I wanted to save money, I should go home, re adjust my tie rods myself and come back for an alignment.

No for the stupid question, why do I need to pop off the tie rod to adjust their length? Isn't that what the adjuster is for? You spin it one way to lengthen the rod, and spin the other way to shorten?

So why not make the drivers side one a little longer and shorten the other one? Am I missing something here?

 

That is what I thought also. Someone should clarify.

 

Sound like the tech didn't want to be bothered. Go someplace else.

 

What ive realized about all jobs that get paid by the hour;

If they see a job that will be a pain in the rear, they will tell the customer some bull crap to shove them off to another location. Seen it with everything, cars, plumbing, piano tuners, you name it.

If they arent the owner and are getting paid hourly, they dont give two craps.

 

I had the same issue with mine.
installed last week.
I used a billet tierod connector
I wasn't able to get the 17.5in lenght with the new Moog tierod ends because it bottomed out.

Turns out, the Moog ones are 1in longer than the original worn out rod ends.
So I simply cut off 1in, and tapered the end.
I assume the Moog parts fit a few different cars and the extra 1in is a universal thing.

Also, 2 important things to check
1.The center link must be aligned using the A-arm bolts as a reference.(should be a paper with the parts that shows a picture of this)

2. Factory alignment is junk on these cars.
It wonders all over the place at speed.
I went with the street +4 deg caster -0.5 camber 3/32 tow in

 

So in the end, it was the same issue as above. The tie-rods were too long on the drivers side and had to be cut around 1/2" to allow for more adjustment. After that, I was able to get it aligned.

Running -1.0 negative camber.