Ahhhh! Tie rod spinner

[Don Giovanoni]

Got the new steering box on tonight. It fought me all the way but I finally got it on. Long tie rod end went on and tightened right up. Put on the steering damper, everything is going good. Put the driver side tie rod on the pitman arm and the tie rod just spins, won't let me tighten the nut up. The inside tie rod ends have locknuts rather than cotter pins. I have fought with the tie rod end spinning for about an hour. The lock nut has just enough resistance to make the rod end spin. Any ideas? I hate to replace the almost new tie rod end and then require a front end alignment. Rosanne Rosanadana was right - it is always something!

[167luckycharm]

Don, If you can remove the nut completely off the threaded end, replace it with a non-locking nut. Tighten it up so the tapered end gets wedged into the pitman arm as it's supposed to. Remove the temporary nut and install the Nylock nut. I use a small amount of Never-Seize on the tapered sections. I haven't replaced the tie rod ends yet, only 1450 miles on the car and everything was installed new. Make sure to torque them to specs too. Good luck!

[newmanx59]

If you can get a dead blow mallet or plastic tipped hammer up inside the buggy you can smack the tie rod end into the taper to seat it and keep it from spinning. I have went as far as to put a little valve grinding compound on the taper, it too works well.

[Don Giovanoni]

Thanks for the replies! I went back out in the garage late last night to try again. I had been trying the hammer trick to get the rod end to snug in the taper with no luck. But I finally found the solution - I put a large screwdriver between the rod ends on the pitman arm and pryed against the rod end that was spinning. Bingo! It put enough pressure to keep the end from spinning and the nut tightened up just fine! After getting everything buttoned up I realized that I had connected the steering column 180 degrees off. Soooo I had to undo the four connection bolts, spin the column and reattach them. I think everything is finished now but I was getting slap happy due to the late hour so I left the tools out and will check everything before I touch up the beam paint and replace the wheel/tire. Thanks again for everyone's support. It seems like jobs that used to take me a couple hours now seems like they take days and involve frustration on the little things. Gee, on TV shows everything is simple bolt and unbolt. Reality shows - HAH!