Man, do I need an oxy torch!! Typical tale:

I decided over the weekend to change the ball joints and front bushings in my 90 745, a decision brought forth by the goat track quality of our roads here in Iowa. Remove wheels, pull control arms, press in new bushings at local shop, change ball joints, change sway bar bushings: not too hard. Much grunting due to stuck bolts, but I thank my stars I have a 24 inch breaker bar.

Then I discover two problems: a weeping power steering pressure hose (easy change once I get the part) and cut boots on both tie rod ends. OK, time to change the rod ends. One comes off in no time. The other has obviously been heated before, but I have at it. IT WILL NOT COME OFF THE INNER TIE ROD. No amount of PBlaster, heating with a propane torch, banging and knocking, will remove either the lock nut or the tie rod end. Somebody clearly heated it before during an alignment, then locked it up with no anti-seize. And it has certainly seized. Bitch!

So I am now going over to NAPA to get a new inner tie rod, the better to just chuck it all out and start from scratch with new, rust-free parts. Question: has anyone removed the inner rod from a CamGear (TRW) rack without removing the rack from the car? It looks easy: pull back the boot, unscrew the holding nut, and pull the inner rod ball joint out. But the entire job looked easy until I burrowed into it. Thoughts?

Steve -

'Way back in my pile of printed Posts is the one about how to get a stuck plug out of the differential housing. I found it. It was authored by Larry/metro.det post #20134134. It uses candle wax to loosen the threads. Hope it helps with your situation.

This is a direct quote:

"Use a propane torch if you have one, and heat the drain plug until the wax melts. Let the drain plug cool, reheat, and apply the candle a second time, use the wrench or your choice. It is my experience that the aforementioned aerosol products (P B Blaster, WD 40, LPS 3, LIQUID WRENCH) will flash and disappear when they encounter extreme heat, but the melted wax will follow the threads, male and female. You may have to repeat the procedure. I rarely have enough time and patience in my toolbox, but numerous half candles or paraffin blocks. This is an old blacksmith procedure..... "

"Works great on exhaust manifold bolts, and other stubborn broken stud-type bolts when yu have to drill and easy-out the remains from cast iron or aluminum when you are dealing with dsssimilar metal electrolysis."

Steve, I have no idea if this will help on the problem you have. I hope so.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

Bob, I tried that: no luck. This puppy was heated up in the past, quickly adjusted and tightened down, and left with no antiseize or antirust (the torch clearly burned off all the factory-applied antirust.) So it welded itself together like nothing I have seen.

I spent enough time trying to separate the parts: time for a new tie rod assembly.

Chances are if it was heated in the past it has been seized for a long time, and the last alignment guy tried to break it loose with heat but could not. I have seen them stuck to the point of twisting the rod off. You are better off with a new inner rod than one that has been heated anyway. New parts are marvelous things.

Steve, why did some clod high school drop out heat the tie rod end in the first place? If you can't get the tie rod end off the mount, a new inner rod will not do it. You might have to go to the junk yard and get a replacement strut and rack.

You might have to get a pickle fork and a huge hammer.

Personally I would get the replacement strut since it's been heat treated, and not by experts.

And it ain't too bad.

Put a drop of liquid paper on the "outside" end of the tie rod to mark where the nut threaded on (allows one to get the wheel alignment back in spec). Used the flat that's on the "rod" portion of the tie rod to hold it steady while I broke the nut free.

I used a pipe wrench on the outside of the ball joint casing where it threads into the steering rack and it broke free without any problems. Vice grips will also work in a pinch. Yeah, this left a few chew marks on the metal, but they dressed out with a file. Whole thing's covered with the rack boot, so it's not like it's an appearance issue or anything.

I understand that there's two different styles of inner tie rods for TRW units. The more common one has a smaller threaded stud (about 15 mm in diameter) where it threads into the steering rack. My 740 has a larger stud (about 25 mm) and I haven't been able to locate a replacement from the usual foreign car sources (Beck-Arnley, etc.). Local Volvo dealer couln't ID it, and wanted $80 for the more common one, anyway. Time to give RPR a call, I guess, as I repacked the joint with brake grease to get the car roadworthy and the wife is starting to gripe about the steering getting a little loose.

Bob Mohr

1990 745 B230F

1992 245 B230F

Bob:

I took the morning off to finish this ('cause riding to work on a bicycle in the rain is not too great) and you're right, it's a piece of cake. I cut the rack boot tie, pulled the rack boot back to expose the ball joint, and used an adjustable wrench to hold the rack at the gear while I applied adjustable pliers to unscrew the inner tie rod and ball joint. This freed the whole assembly, which I pulled off. I cut the inner rod with a hacksaw to remove the boot. Then I screwed the new inner rod into place, using threadlocker, and staked it with a punch where the old one was staked.

I reinstalled the rack boot with a heavy-duty cable tie and I installed the tie rod end. Ready for an alignment.

BTW, NAPA had my inner tie rod in stock for the 90 745 with CamGear.

Just for my enlightenment, did your inner tie rod have the big or small stud on it? If it was the big one (diameter a bit smaller than a 25 cent piece, smaller is closer to a dime in size), then I'll try my local NAPA....

Glad I was able to help. Your postings have saved my bacon many times over the last four years.

Bob Mohr

1990 745 B230F

1992 245 B230F

Gone but not forgotten:

1983 242 Turbo Flathood "Limited Edition"

1982 244 B23F

Nope, it had a short threaded stud about the diameter of a dime, and about 3/4 inch long. That stud was on the end of a bell-shaped ball joint. The rack is a CamGear TRW.

Steve:

Also glad you posted this as I am going to tackle the whole front end on my neice's 700 in about two weeks. I have everything on the bench, except strut inserts! Plus, I have done several 240 struts, but never a 740!

Your post gave me some Volvo food for thought!

Bob Weber

46 Volvos since 1979

Warren, I am sure that the tie rod end was at one time corroded, so said clod heated it up to align the toe-in. BUT he did not apply any antiseize to either the tie rod end threads or the holding nut, so the whole thing seized up solid after the alignment.

Fortunately, the CamGear rack is nifty: you can replace the inner tie rod end (I have one on order at NAPA for about $35) and throw away the old seized-up amalgamation of inner rod, nut and outer tie rod end. You don't need a new rack at all: just replace the inner rod sticking out from the boot. Then add a new tie rod end and you're back in business.

I just don't want to have to pull the rack to do this.

OK Steve, I missed that part in your original post. The seized part is the tie rod end on the rod not on the strut. Well, that certainly is 'better', but still a PITA.

So offer me some advice. I am going to change my tie rod ends soon, this weekemd is out due to an event in the area in which I must participate.

Should I use a pickle fork or some kind of puller to get these ends off? I will do one at a time and make sure the alignment is close. I have an alignment shop close by with the latest wiz bang led/laser rangeing/timing. Gee, when your measuring fractions of inches, how fast does the computer need to be, Picosecond clock speeds? Anyway, I hope you are sucessful in your repairs, and take some pics will you. A staged shot with hammer in hand beating the hell out of your car would be a good one. How about the car fighting back? Do you have a digital camera yet?

BTW, I have a short length of boiler tube for my breaker bar. I picked it up here when the boiler was being re-tubed. As I was carrying it to my car, several women looked at me strangely. I wonder why?

Warren, the tie rod ends came out of the control arm without much force. I did not have to use a puller: in one case it nearly fell out when I removed the nut, and in the other I used a hard plastic mallet to whack the nut, mounted right on the end of the rod. They fall down vertically out of the control arm. If you have to use a puller, get a small Pittman arm puller to fit over the control arm, with the screw pressing down on the tie rod threaded shaft. A pickle fork would also work well since you don;t care about saving the tie rod end. The Volvo puller tool fits nicely, but not everybody has one.

If you do this, use plenty of PBlaster the night before and hope the tie rod ends don't seize up like mine did. If they do, you're buying new inner rods as well. And reinstall with a good grade of antiseize.