Ok, so I'm planning on completely refreshing the suspension components and bearings on the Fabia, due to it feeling a little 'loose' for my liking, plus it's now over 100k miles.

 

As part of this overhaul I'm going to change the track rods themselves, as there's a tiny bit of play in one side that was picked up on my recent mot.

 

Who on here has replaced them on their own? I'm aware that space is very tight and that to complete the job with the rack still on the car requires specialist tooling. I've had a look on eBay for tools and I'm wondering whether someone could confirm that this would do the job...

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bergen-Steering-Rack-Knuckle-Tool-Tie-Rod-End-Track-Joint-Removal-30-45-B6136-/141374987516?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item20ea9b1cfc

 

 

Looks ok to me, but I'm unsure what diameter of tool is needed for this specific rod? I'm presuming that it must be over 30mm?

 

 

Other than that, I'm guessing that the job is simply a case of.... remove track rod end, remove rubber boot from joint and slide off, use this tool to unscrew the original rod, then the opposite to re-build? Does anyone happen to know the torque value for these please?

 

 

Cheers!

The track rod end just screws on the end of the rack doesn't it? No need to pull the actual arm out of the rack itself or are they different from other racks?

It just screws out of the rod arm (drumstick) and then into the pinch joint

 

Just ensure you measure it up before hand as not to put the tracking out majorly 

The actual track rod itself, not the end part that connects to the hub. As there's a bush located on this that has a little bit of play.

The rod screws directly into the steering rack until it's tight. The connection is underneath a rubber boot.

Considering the amount of things I'm going to replace, I'd be a fool if I didn't get it properly aligned afterwards!!

The track rod itself is quite easy to replace, usually i use molegrips and try shock it anti clockwise and after it screws off easily, screw on new one and try get it as tight as you can although it cant exactly come off when the track rod end is connected to the hub lol just make sure you count the turns in the track rod end when you install them. You will definitely need your wheel alignment done to make sure everythings spot on, good luck!

I managed it with mole grips too

A problem I had was caused by the short length of thread that is exposed above the nut on top of the joint being rusted up (I'd spent the previous week preparing with WD40, Plusgas, etc. Unscrewing the nut starts off OK but it got tighter and tighter until my spanner work caused the tapered joint come apart. That means the whole thing rotates instead of just the nut. Rust had also made the female hex that is on top of the thread almost round, therefore unusable. I tried a Gee clamp and also lowering the car onto the ball joint but nothing caused the tapered joint to force together again so it would grip. In the end I used a nut splitter to remove the nut. I suppose another option would have been to cut the stud off under the nut with hacksaw/dremel (assuming the nut had unscrewed at least a couple of millimeters before the tapered joint came apart so you could get a blade under it). Good luck

A problem I had was caused by the short length of thread that is exposed above the nut on top of the joint being rusted up (I'd spent the previous week preparing with WD40, Plusgas, etc. Unscrewing the nut starts off OK but it got tighter and tighter until my spanner work caused the tapered joint come apart. That means the whole thing rotates instead of just the nut. Rust had also made the female hex that is on top of the thread almost round, therefore unusable. I tried a Gee clamp and also lowering the car onto the ball joint but nothing caused the tapered joint to force together again so it would grip. In the end I used a nut splitter to remove the nut. I suppose another option would have been to cut the stud off under the nut with hacksaw/dremel (assuming the nut had unscrewed at least a couple of millimeters before the tapered joint came apart so you could get a blade under it). Good luck

 

They are talking about the track rod, not the track rod end.