Tie Rod Replacement - UPDATE

[Bhatti, Mohammed]

Well Folks,
 
Thought I'd update everybody on some of the action that I undertook over the weekend.  I must admit, the job itself was not as hard I thought it would have been and a lot of that is due to the great help, ideas and encouragement I got from the listers.
 
I replaced both outer tie rods and had no problem removing any of the bolts or prying out the tie rod.  In fact, I used no special tools other than a rubber mallet to bang out the tie rod.  The first side took me about 2 hours (yeah I know...) and the other side took 20 minutes.
 
Note that the Bentley says to loosen the outer clamp on the rubber boot.  I did this and realized after the fact that there is no need to do this at all.  I wasted time visiting auto part stores trying to locate the exact clamp.  Finally got a Band-it clamp and used that instead of the OEM variety.
 
The inner bolt is also fairly easy to loosen using an adjustable wrench and application of some PB Blaster.  The two outer bolts that attach to the suspension arms (??) are also very easy to loosen using 13mm and 16mm sockets.
 
I dropped it off today to get an alignment.  I know it's off, even after counting threads and measuring bolt-to-bolt, the steering wheel is off center to the left.
 
Oh yeah, the groaning sound from the steering wheel while making low speed turns has gone aswell.  Also, was able to work sitting on a small chair, not lying on my back so no aches this morning.
 
Thank for all the great help.
 
--
mohammed
97 A4 1.8tqa
 
ps - thanks to John McMahon for offering me his phone number in case I got into difficulties.  Didn't need to disturb you John, but appreciated the just-in-case-emergency-number.