Jigs for attaching new inner tie rod (on a Previa)

Ran across these and thought I'd post 'em for inspiration or grins. These combinations of clamps, scrap metal and washers are what I used to stabilize/avoid damage to the steering rack on a '92 Alltrac when torquing on new inner tie rods. Maybe an overabundance of caution, but the rack had already leaked a bit and I didn't want to make things worse.

Holding the rack end prior to threading in and torquing on the tie rod. One C-clamp holds the wrench in place, the other blocks the wrench (and rack end) against twisting when the tie rod is tightened:
Attachment 9997

Ideally after screwing in the rod you hammer & bend in the edges of the washer behind the rod attachment point that then prevents it from loosening. This can be an on-van PITA, especially when it comes to the recommendation to immobilize the end of the rack. Used 3 (Kant-Twist) clamps. Inner tie rod held inside scrap pipe itself clamped to an aluminum extrusion clamped to the frame. Bunch o'washers slipped over the rod behind the pipe so the pipe could seat against something flat. Started the bend in the edges of the rod washer tapping with a hammer + metal bar until I could grab and squeeze them in with an adjustable pliers. (FYI, the block of wood (6 landscape timbers bolted together) on the left is a jack stand backup):
Attachment 9995

Yikes. Now I'm scared of this job. :yikes: I don't seem to find a tutorial thread here and the FSM is pretty useless on this matter so I guess I'll have to dive in and sink or swim.

Well,I took a few to peruse my old Yahoo! group files, and most of the discussion of doing the thing was written by....me. Most others were about where to get parts and how the official Toyota instructions require rack removal. The bottom line was that doing the inners on the van is indeed a PITA. I'll paste the relevant messages here. My comments now in italics. Sorry for the extra Yikes.

----------------------------- from the Yahoo! Previa Group Archives -------------------------------------
Feb 27, 2019 (me)

....was replacing my floppy inner tie rods, and got, say, 3+ tablespoons of brake fluid out of the right steering boot (no more than a paper towel could handle) and none out of the left. Reservoir doesn't look low and I have no recollection of ever topping it up any time in recent history.

Now I know what a really leaky rack looks like - just replaced one on my '98 Camry where the fluid out of the boots was significant (BTW discovered it's a lot cheaper to get a whole rebuilt rack from NAPA (with core return) than just buying the inner rods from Toyota).

I'm tempted to just leave the steering rack alone and just keep an eye on the fluid level going forward.


March 1, 2019 (me)

My tie rods wouldn't budge pushing or pulling on them, but there was almost no resistance to them swiveling - and the outers were not loose, but not tight either, so they were all on the way out.

The rack too, given the bit of leakage, but it could last for a while before it's performance starts degrading IMO - just don't know (my Camry had a discernible change in steering feel in comparison).

Thanks for the feedback [re where to source, but keep in mind it was 2019]. I've cleaned everything up and decided to just go with the NAPA inner and outer tie rod replacements (their better version) and keep an eye on the steering fluid (after a flush). If it gets worse sometime later and the rest of the van is still roadworthy, I can always replace the rack.

BTW, how difficult did you find it to extract and replace your rack? My concern is there'd be one thing that got in the way that'd require removing all kinds of other stuff I'd rather leave alone. It's not like any thing I've already removed makes it more easily accessible that it would be later, except maybe some coolant hoses.

Rack-removal seemed like a lot of extra work, what with getting the All-trac stuff out of the way and refilling the rack, etc., etc.


March 2, 2019

I just got around to replacing my inner tie rods as well. What a difference! The front end is tight again. One of those things that you put off but, in retrospect, should have done long ago. The factory manual was a severe discourager for this work as it is covered in the rack rebuilding section with a bunch of special service tools required. But, other than torque specs, it was ignored and substituted with YouTube videos. The free rental of a inner tie rod tool was the last piece of the puzzle.

I discovered the exact leak issue, a small amount in right boot. I’m going with the watch the level option for now. I’ve got an oil pan area leak that I want to tackle first and maybe the rack leak won’t progress significantly (fingers crossed).

Mike H ‘97 443k miles (96k on JDM)

March2, 2019 (me)

Addendum - I didn't have the right Molybdenum Lithium-based grease for the exposed rack teeth (I had wiped them off, wasn't sure they were clean or not). The interwebs seem to indicate that grease with 3% Moly seems to be preferred, but Walmart/Auto Stores carried stuff that either had minimal, 1% or undefined amounts, regardless of "Moly" in the name. Probably not super-critical for this application, but found what looks like good stuff at Tractor Supply - "Traveller Extreme 3% Moly Grease." Good for CV joints, oil seal reassembly, etc. as well.

March 5, 2019 (me)

Gah. Two other complications. One of the two inner tie rods wasn't accepting the crow's foot insert for the inner tie rod tool. Turns out the flat for it is narrower than the crow's foot insert (photo compares it to one of the tie rods I took out). The takeaway is to check this before assuming your wrench is going to fit.

The other, minor realization was that the FSM specifies a 65 ft-lb torque for the inner tie rod, but that's assuming a torque wrench of a specific length plus the Toyota special tool crows-foot attached. As you know, adding an extension to a torque wrench reduces the reading you stop at to get a particular torque at the fastener. In this case, using an inner tie rod tool, the reading you should go for is probably at at least 70 (assuming an inch-long extension for their special crow's foot tool) rather than 65 ft-lb, since there's no extension. Not a big deal, but should have realized that before I staked the 1st tie rod in place...

Off to the grinder... [can't remember what I was grinding - tool or part, but I don't remember seeing a ground tool anywhere since

Another observation - got around to installing the inner tie rods from NAPA, both the same part number 269-3011. Painted differently - I can easily understand that, but different grease too! Based on the color, I'm assuming one is molybdenum and the other isn't. Plus the moly-greased one comes with a bonus packet of what looks like regular grease. For...saving for years until I finally throw it out, I guess.

Attachment 13355

Attachment 13354]

Oh wow. Thanks for digging that up. I did figure out the FSM instructions finally, once I realized they were doing the whole rack on the bench and I figured out they were calling the inner tie rods "rack ends." Then it made more sense. But I'm not looking forward to that inner. I am definitely not pulling the rack, I hope. I see the lower half of the boot/bellows has gunk on it so the rack may be leaking. Certainly no signs of fluid level going down though. I will try to pull the bellows tomorrow, but it looks like one of the tabs on the inner clamp is broken so I may have to destroy the boot to get the clamp off.

I bought the HF Maddox tool because nobody rents tie rod tools around here..