How to Replace Inner Tie Rod 2005-14 Ford Mustang

Once you have your vehicle safely raised and supported, you're going to remove all five lug nuts using a 21-millimeter. Carefully, remove the wheel, set it aside. One of the first things we have to do is break free this jam nut. Try to have a good grip. There we are, That broke free.

The next thing we're going to do is remove this cotter pin. Use your 18-millimeter, remove this nut. Let's take that nut, just put it back on here a couple threads. Next we're gonna take a hammer and we're gonna hit right here, and this is gonna fall down, the nut's gonna prevent it from falling and potentially hurting us. There we are. This nut off of there. Okay, when you try to turn the outer tie rod end, if it doesn't come unscrewed from the inner tie rod end, you're gonna need to hold this with some locking pliers and then try to turn this at the same time. If you're having a hard time turning it, you could use a boxed end of a wrench. It's a good idea to count the turns as it comes off. Twenty-three is what I've got for mine. Here's my differ, but it's probably approximately that. Now I'm gonna hold my pliers. Use a 22-millimeter socket on this right here. Try to get the jam nut out of the way.

Next we're going to get the bellows boot off of here, to do that there's going to be a clamp of some sort on this side, and a clamp of some sort on this side. Now we're going to give the bellows boot a tug, and try to get it right off this inner tie rod end. At this point, you want to check the bellows boot, make sure it's not ripped or torn in any way. Or of course, if it's overly stiff that might become an issue. If you happen to take a peek inside, and you see it's full of fluid, more than likely if it came from inside of your power steering rack right here, in which case you would need to replace the power steering rack.

Here we go. Gonna grab onto this inner tie rod end with my pliers, get to the right size, turn it counterclockwise. There we are, take this right off of here.

There it is. Time to get ready for an install. I put on a tiny bit of thread-locker. I used the lube that was included with the inner tie rod end. I put it all inside that ball and socket, and then just a little bit of lube down on these threads over here. You can also use some Never-Seez. It's bottomed out. Grab this with my pliers, make sure I have a nice good handle on it. Give it a little snug. About halfway up your inner tie rod end, you're gonna be able to feel this little groove. You want to make sure you put a little bit of that lube from your packet right there as well. When we put the bellows boot on, this is gonna slide all the way down, and then that's where this is gonna sit. You want to make sure that you have lube there, that's gonna help the alignment technician down the road.

Okay, and everything flowing, that feels good. Make sure you put a clamp here and a clamp right there.

Tiny bit of copper Never-Seez doesn't hurt. This jam nut, and put it down probably about halfway or a little bit further. Grab your outer tie rod end and screw it in as many times as it took you to take off the original. Bring your knuckle around, pull this up. Start on that neoprene locking nut. Let's bottom this out with our 18-millimeter. Let's torque this to 59-foot-pounds. Make sure you snug up your jam nut. Perfect. Let's get the wheel back up on here. Start on all your lug nuts and then bottom them out. Now we're gonna bring this down, and torque it to manufacturer's specifications.

Now with the vehicle's wheel touching the ground, but most of the weight of the vehicle off of it, we're gonna torque these in a star pattern to 100-foot-pounds. Torqued.