ok hopefully not a stupid question... but I finally started tightening my tie rods using my Hotchkis hex sleeves. I was hesitant b/c they would only thread so far by hand, and figured the threads inside were warped.

Anyway, I found a 1-1/8" wrench and although hard to turn/tighten, at least the rods went inside (have not torqued castle nuts yet). Now the tie rods are twisted and not parallel with the center link/steering arm. See pics below. Does it matter being like this? If not... the only way that seems easiest to correct is to tighten to where wheel is almost aligned, remove the entire rod/sleeve assembly, adjust accordingly on bench, then remount to joints. But that defeats the purpose, since when I go to the alignment shop, they are going to adjust the sleeve anyway putting the rods back where they were.

 

So what exactly is the problem? The tie rods aren't square with the centerlink?

They have ball joints on the end of them, they are designed to move around as the suspension moves. So its totally fine that they have moved as you tighten.

If you want to square them up, after you tighten the castle nuts, jsut grab the assembly and rotate it up- it will move with just your wrist strength.

those are nice adjusters- wish i had them.

 

Yes, squared is what I be meaning. You can see it in the pics. Not squared to the centerlink or the steering arm. Like when you tighten a fuel/brake clamp to the frame for example. It is sometime hard to keep the clamp straight as you tighten it.

The Hotchkis adjusters are very beefy (black powdercoated). I also have a set of Edelbrock 5252's (silver zinc finish) as I thought there was something defective in the Hotchkis ones. Well they act the same, so I am assuming the threads start to 'taper' a bit once you hit a certain point.

 

Don't matter anyway. The Moog tie rods are too long for the Hotchkis adjusters. Will have to cut the tie rods, get shorter tie rods, or use the original style sleeves. Sucks.

 

The original sleeves are fine - they last for half a century, easy, often more.

As for squaring the tie rods, there's actually a brief mention of this in the Chassis Service Manual - they should be more or less square in the normal driving position, with weight on the wheels. If the adjusters are too tight to just turn them by and, then turn them while holding the tie rods with a pair of Vise-Grips.

- Eric