EHarris

Had a thread a little while back about changing this boot. I have never taken suspension parts apart so just a quick question.

The top of the nut looks like it has a cotter pin that splits. Soooo....just bend that up then take a ratchet and loosen the top. The drag link should separate from the tie rod, I can then change the boot that synergy provided me. Re-torque the the nut to ?? And then grease the boot?

Sorry for such a newb question but I am headed on a trip this weekend and don't want to screw this up.

casamtb

Pull the cotter pin you may want to replace it with a new one and then loosen the castle nut. Once the castle but is off you can just pop the top of it to drop the drag link out of the knuckle. The problem you may run into is that there may not be enough clearance between the stock tie rod and the synergy drag link. You may have to drop the tie rod. I can't remember. Synergy says torque the castle to 50 and up to 90 depending. If you do have to drop the stock tie rod make sure you use a wire brush to clean the shit out of the exposed threads and don't pop it out until that nut is all the way off. The problem is that the end will spin and you can only hold it with a 7mm in the end of the joint. If that nut gets jammed on the dirty tie rod ends threads. You're f'd

Monte417

Once you take the nut off the tie rod end isn't just going to fall out. It's going to take some persuasion. I use a big hammer and hit the knuckle with a few sharp hits. Do not hit the top of the tie rod end. You can also use a pickle fork as your changing the boot anyway.

EHarris

Ok well tonight I will get a better look at it and then try to see if it disconnects. Hopefully it is as easy as I thought it would be and just pull up the pin, unscrew the castle nut and job complete.

I'll post back with my results. Thank you.

EHarris

Do you use thread locker on this piece or never? Here is the new boot courtesy of Synergy.

casamtb

On the nuts probably not. I've never read anywhere that u need to. The ends are compressed in there. The synergy castle nut with cotter pin won't come off and the stock nuts are nylocks. Thread lock will eat some plastics and rubbers.

EHarris

Cool. I've heard not to use it in nylon. I'll update later tonight after I get it done hopefully.

tjkamp

If you are going to use the hammer to beat on it, use a second hammer as a back up on the opportune side of the rod end. Swing both hammers at once sandwiching the rod end between them. A couple of blows like this will pop the rod end loose. Don't swing super hard, just persistent firm blows.

Hope this helps.

EHarris

Yup cotter pin comes right out. Castle nut is impossible. Letting it sit right now but seems unlikely that the bolt is coming off with a 1/2 drive. I've got a ton of Kroil on it but I may have to pull the tire and use a breaker bar to get this rusty thing off.

resharp001

It's probably worth it to just pull the wheel for a little working space, specially if it looks like you might need to pull the TR on that side for clearance. Keep in mind once you get that bolt off, the DL isn't gonna just fall out. That is wedged up in a taper pretty good, so heed Monte417's advice above using some "persuasion" to get it out. Same with the TR if need be. You do not need to use threadlock when reinstalling. Just torque to spec. If the hole for the pin is blocked once torqued to spec, tighten a bit more till the next clearance (do not back it off just to get the pin through the hole).