Mully

Hoping someone can shed some light on this for me....

I got my '96 Cherokee inspected the other day so I can register it (been sitting in my driveway with dead tags on it). The mechanic came up with a few things......one thing he said it needed was a right outer Tie Rod/Drag Link.

I looked at the front suspension and everything seems good to me. Everything is tight.....nothing is leaking.....drives/tracks perfectly straight....no noises or clunks....I have no idea why he thinks this is an issue. Talking to him about it was like talking to a brick wall.

Anyway.....As I'm not sure exactly what he meant, does anyone have any insight on this? What should I look for? What parts would I need? How hard is this to do myself? He quoted me $356 for the tie rod/drag link. His rates are.....get this.....$98/hour. WTF??? He also quoted me $33 to replace the bulbs in the third brake light. Just to give you an idea of how this mechanic operates.....

Well thanks guys for any comments.

okcjeeper

You can do tre's yourself for far less then what he quoted you.

mike37

so what this guy is doing is making up stuff that needs fixing
hoping that you don't know any thing about mechanics
so he can charge you for something that is not broken
and there is nothing you can do cus if he don't sign it off you cant get it registered

mike37

right outer Tie Rod/Drag Link.

thats the part that comes from the pitman arm on the steering box
and goes down to the right steering knuckle

okcjeeper

Is there any other shops you can take it to for an inspection?

funkle95xj

The process of removing and replacing any of the tie rod ends on your cherokee is very easy. I just replaced all of my TREs recently and it was super easy, even aligned it myself (also easy). The most expensive TRE is the long tie rod end from the passenger side to the pitman arm, it is around 60-70 bucks. Otherwise there are three other ends, the drivers side TRE, the pitman arm TRE and the draglink TRE. and they are all threaded differently so it's foolproof installing them. They should only cost around 15 bucks each too. With all that said, I really think this guy was just trying to milk you for some cash, you can do it yourself no problem.

mike37

this is the part

okcjeeper

If you replace one I honestly suggest replacing them all but that's just me. Also I would do the ZJ tie rod/draglink upgrade. Much better and much stronger setup.

mark's91-XJ

This is what i got off the net, cheep and looks great

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...%3AIT&viewitem=

okcjeeper

I am gonne strongly urge against buying parts off ebay. I bought some TRE's off ebay and they were cheap chinese crap. Ended up needing to replace one of them within a month.

BuckB91XJ

The tie rod end on the passenger side at the end of the draglink, That Mike37 showed in the pic. That is definitley the part the mechanic was talking about.
What you need to do is have somebody start up the Jeep while you are under there looking at the tie rod end. have the driver wiggle the steering wheel side to side about 5-6 inches either way. what you're looking for is to see if that tie rod end moves at all before the steering arm moves. That would indicate that your tie rod end is worn and needs to be replaced.

Mully

Wow guys THANKS! You all truly rock! Mike, thanks for the pic. I'm going to do the work myself. I'm sure I'll have more questions. THANKS again.