Thread: How do I adjust my Tie-Rod?

I can't seem to get it to budge. My toe is waaaaay out and just wanted to get it lined up till I get some money together for a full alignment. What do I need to get to get the rod it move, I've tried Vice grips and a cresent wrench. Is it held together somewhere else to prevent it from moving?

You have your tierod end (the part with the ball joint on it) and your inner tie rod (the one with the threads). On the inner tie rod there is a jam nut butted up against the tierod end and that holds the inner from turning. You need to loosen up that jam nut and the inner tie rod should turn freely after that. I just replaced mine and noticed a bit of rust in them so they could be rusted up. Think of the inner tie rod as a reverse turnbuckle.

So I need to take off that nut holding on the ball joint to get the rod to move around?

quick bump...have the car in the air.

I'm not sure which nut you are talking about, but you do not want to loosen the nut that holds the ball joint together. That's a castle nut with a cotter pin. Stay away from there for adjusting toe.

You can locate the tie rod by looking for a long rod about as big around as your little finger with threads on either end. It's the threads that allow you to shorten or lengthen the rod by turning it.

On the end of the rod that is farthest from the center of the car you will see a jam nut -- it's 19mm IIRC. You need to loosen this and then you can rotate the tie rod to change the toe in. You will see a spot on the rod that has flattened areas to accept a small wrench, I think it's 11mm. You can use this area to rotate the rod, or grab it with vice grips just like they would in your local garage. Look at the suspension geometry to figure out which way to turn the rod to increase or decrease toe.

I find it useful to wrap a piece of masking tape around the rod and mark it with a felt tip pen so you can count the number of revolutions or otherwise track the turns that you make. A little goes a long way, you will get a feel for how much change in toe occurs with a full turn, half turn, etc.

Here you go:
http://www.ehow.com/video_2327641_how-adjust-toein-wheel-alignment.html

Thank You very much...I wasn't sure what the jam nut was now I know exactly what your talking about. When I was looking at it, it didn't look like it was going to move but I'll give it a try this morning.

Thanks for the help again guys....the Toe was out so far I have no idea how I never noticed it. Looked like this hehe \ /

Looks like everything is squared away now. My car can take the bump and manhole covers like a champ now. Feels like a totally different Sentra.

Im going to get it aligned legit soon but for how this works out great.

NiN align it big time i did that over a month ago put 2 new tie rods the next day i did alignment... an holy ****! saved me gas too

Oh I will my cuban friend.