Ok well I just went to get an alignment, so I left my jeep at a shop guy said it would tske 3 hours cause of other cars before me. So long story short I went back to pick up my rig, guy says they didnt bother doing it because I need a right side outer tie rod, guy gave me a price of 130 bucks to replace it. If its simple to do ill just do it myself, but I just need a little help, first off are they hard to replace and do I need any special tools? Second I dont really evn kno wat the part looks like or were it is is it just an end link that looks like this?

 

That should be it yes. Never replaced one on my xj before but have done it one different cars and its not to hard. As far as telling you how to do it I can't explain things.lol Someone else can.

Its not all that hard to do tho fix you can do yourself.

 

that indeed looks like a tie rod end, you might as well do both as long as you're under there. There is a right and left side, one has left hand threads and the other right hand threads. You will want to borrow a pickle fork from your auto parts store and get some anti-seize for the threads. If the tie rod ends are rusted in the tie rod you may need a pipe wrench to get them loose. Tie rod ends cost 20-40 dollars per side so you can do both for alot less than the shop wanted for replacing one.

After you install the tie rod ends you need to adjust your tie rod so the front inside distance of the front tires is ~1/8" less than the back of the front tires, this is your "toe-in".

 

Well as soon as I install the link im gonna get an alignment so will they just correct it for me?

 

They will but you need to get it close. You can't (shouldn't) drive down the road with a 3/4" toe-in. It's really pretty easy to set your toe-in.

 

Well as soon as I install the link im gonna get an alignment so will they just correct it for me?

 

yes but you need to get it at least close before driving it. And make damn sure the shop knows how to properly align your jeep with the lift on it (it's NOT the same as the stock specs)

 

It's very confusing, the right and left and all of that, but I believe the 'right outer tie rod' would be that light blue piece labeled 'drag link' in the above pic. That goes from the passenger side knuckle to the collar below the pitman arm. That is why it costs a good bit more, because it is a much longer piece.

 

Ok the guy at the shop is stupid, I went back and told them to show me the part I need and came out and pointed to the right inner tie rod link that connects to the drag link

 

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...S_446398670___

 

The pic above is labled correctly, the tie rod is the tie rod and it has two different tie rod ends (one left hand thread, the other right hand) ........... the drag link also has a tie rod end that connects the pitman arm to the drag link.

 

Ok so I finally found the right end link, went to 4 different parts stores and 3 of them had no idea what I was talking about they kept giving me the one that connects to the pitman arm. Until the 4th store I went to the guy pulled out a part catalog that showed the steering setup and got me the right link, I swear some of these ppl shouldnt be working at a parts store

 

I thought you said you needed the tie rod end link that connects the draglink to the pitman arm. (see below)

 

No not that one, the tie rod has 2 links at each end of it, I needed the passager side end link the one that goes from the tie rod to the drag link not the one that goes from the drag link to the pitman arm

 

get a separator fork to pop the tie rods off