How to Replace Front Tie Rod Adjusting Sleeves 1997-2003 Ford F-150
Created on: 2017-06-20
How to repair, install, fix, change or replace a broken, busted, bad, loose, or damaged tie rod adjusting sleeve on 97, 987, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, Ford F150.
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step 1 :Removing the Wheel
- Loosen the five 19mm lug nuts
- Raise and support the vehicle
- Remove the lug nuts
- Slide the wheel off the hub
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step 2 :Removing the Outer Tie Rod End
- Remove the cotter pin from the castle nut
- Remove the castle nut with a 13/16" wrench
- Strike the wheel knuckle with a hammer to loosen the tie rod end
- Twist the tie rod end off the inner tie rod, counting how many rotations it takes to remove
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step 3 :Removing the Tie Rod Adjusting Sleeve
- Loosen the adjuster sleeve from the inner tie rod with a 24mm wrench
- Twist the adjusting sleeve off the inner tie rod
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step 4 :Installing the Tie Rod Adjusting Sleeve
- Thread the wider diameter side of the adjusting sleeve onto the inner tie rod
- Tighten the sleeve up to the jam nut while holding the inner tie rod in place
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step 5 :Installing the Outer Tie Rod End
- Start the tie rod end into the adjuster sleeve
- Turn the tie rod end in, the same number of turns it took to remove
- Line up the tie rod end into the wheel knuckle
- Fasten the castle nut onto the tie rod end
- Line up the castle nut with the hole in the tie rod end
- Feed the cotter pin through the hole
- Bend the cotter pin with pliers to secure it
- Tighten the jam nuts with a 27mm wrench
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step 6 :Installing the Wheel
- Slide the wheel onto the hub
- Start the lug nuts
- Lower the vehicle to the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts to between 83 and 112 foot-pounds of torque in a star pattern
Tools needed
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24mm Wrench
Hammer
Torque Wrench
13/16 Inch Wrench
Jack Stands
19mm Socket
Ratchet
Floor Jack
Needle nose pliers
1/2 Inch Breaker Bar
27mm Wrench
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So in order to start this project you want to go ahead and loosen the wheel and the lug nuts here. We're going to use a breaker bar with a 19 millimeter socket. So next we're going to go ahead and raise and support your vehicle. You can use a jack and jack stands. In this case here we're using a lift to make it a little bit easier. Just go ahead and remove the lug nuts here just by using that socket because we've already loosened those. With the lug nuts removed we can now go ahead and remove the wheel and tire.
So this right here is your outer tie rod end. We have the nut here to anchor this on. This is the castle nut. Normally you would have a cotter pin through here, but this did not have it in there. So it must have rotted or fallen out. So we're going to go ahead and remove this nut off of the outer tie rod end, and we're going to use a 13/16” wrench for this here.
So in order to remove this outer tie rod end, this actually fits into a tapered hole. What we can usually do in our driveway at home is, if you use a hammer and you strike the front here, it normally causes this to pop out. So now that we have this out, you can see that this is a tapered base, and this fits tightly into the front of the steering knuckle. So when you tighten up the castle nut, it sucks it down inside and keeps it nice and tight.
We're going to go ahead and replace the adjuster sleeve right here. We want to start by removing your outer tie rod end. Ideally, you want to count the amount of threads that this comes out on, so you have full rotation of this ball joint on your tie rod end.
Okay. We're going to use a 24 millimeter and we want to go ahead and basically unthread this off of the inner tie rod end. There we go. Now, because we're just replacing the adjuster sleeve, you can leave this jam nut right here, and when you take the new adjuster sleeve, just thread it right on up to that jam nut. There we go.
This here is the old part. This here is the new part from 1A Auto. If you notice, on the old part, we have the spot right here that has a flat section so you could put your wrench on there. Our part also has that. On the installation it is important to know that each side is a different diameter. The larger is the inner tie rod end port, and the smaller one is for the outer tie rod, so you can only put it on one way. Obviously if you have the smaller port, it just won't fit.
We're just going to go ahead and thread this on. When this threads on, you're going to notice that the wrench side is closer to the tie rod on the outer tie rod, but this here was closer to the inner. It doesn't matter. It's going to work the same exact way, it's just to give you an anchoring point for your wrench. Okay, you want to just crank that right up by hand up to that jam nut.
Now that we have the adjuster sleeve installed, because we don't actually have to replace this outer tie rod end, we can go ahead and get this installed now. In this component, we did count 31 full rotations. That means for the ball joint section facing down, a full rotation, that is one. We counted 31 of those there. In case you were installing a new outer tie rod end, you would have that count. I believe that was a 31. We'll just tighten up that jam nut by hand a little bit.
Then you're ready for your installation. Install your castle nut. You would tighten this up. Line up the castle nut with the hole in the outer tie rod end there. Use your cotter pin, feed it through, and then you're going to want to bend that over using a pair of pliers. Your adjuster sleeve may come with jam nuts. If your factory equipment is just fine, there's no need to replace them. Okay, so we're going to go ahead and tighten up these jam nuts.
All right, I'm going to go ahead and reinstall the tire. I'm going to go ahead and reinstall the lug nuts here. You want to get a few threads caught on all of these here. These lug nuts are 19 millimeters. So we're just going to snug these, bottom it out. Bottom the wheel out to the rotor. We're going to lower the vehicle down onto its own weight, and then do a final torque. With the vehicle on the ground, we're going to do a final torque of the wheel which is between 83 and 112 foot pounds. We're going to do it in a star pattern. All right, just double check the first one. She's all set.
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