Re: inner tie rods

["Gary G. Erickson" <erickson@teleport.com>]

Autobahn01@aol.com wrote:

> The inner rod ends on a 4000q hardly ever go bad, but a
> frozen adjuster mechanism would make the rod junk.

Agreed on the frozen adjuster, but I've also replaced five (no, not all
in the same car) front tie-rods because the inner ends got squishy. 
Remember that those inner ends are located directly below the reservoir
for the power steering fluid in the GT/4kq cars.  

Those lines age and weep fluid which drips right onto rack causing
deterioration of both the steering rack boot and the rubber bushings at
the inner tie-rod end.

Besides, they're cheap to do as piece of mind if you think that's where
your steering slop is coming from.  I've purchased both left and right
_complete tie-rod assemblies_ from Halsey Imports in Portland (see
vendor list) for less than $40 each in the past.

My $0.02 worth,

Gary

'85 turbo GT coupe
'84 4kq