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How to Replace Inner Outer Tie Rods with Adjuster Sleeve 1988-2002 GMC Sierra 1500

Created on: 2020-04-27

Watch this video to learn how to install new TRQ inner and outer tie rods and adjusting sleeve on your 1988 to 2002 GMC Sierra K1500.

Tools needed

  • Torque Wrench

    Hammer

    Rust Penetrant

    Pry Bar

    18mm Socket

    Safety Glasses

    Pliers

    Pickle Fork

    Measuring Tape

    Side Cutters

    Gloves

    1/2 Inch Ratchet

    Wheel Chocks

    Anti-Seize Grease

    Floor Jack

    22mm Socket

Safely raise and support your vehicle on the frame so your suspension can hang. Now that we've safely raised the vehicle, let's remove this by using a small pry bar right in this little slot. Now you can see your 22-millimeter lug nuts, remove those. And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side. It's a great idea to spray down the area. We're going to let that sit. Obviously, if your tie rod ends look like this around the adjustment area, you're going to want to do the whole thing. If for some reason you aren't, you're going to remove these two bolts and then you'll turn this out and that will break this free.

So now that I know that I am replacing the assembly as a whole, I'm going to turn the wheel all the way to the left. That's going to give me the most area to get to that inner tie rod and stud. To start, I'm going to use my 18-millimeter half-inch drive, come right up here on the outer tie rod end nut, if you need to give it a couple of bonks, make sure you get it on there. Let's loosen this up. I'm just going to take that nut and put it back on there, just a few threads to keep myself safe.

So now we're going to break the outer tie rod end free from the knuckle right here, you can use a large hammer. You could also use a pickle fork with a hammer. If you're going to go with the hammer method, just go right here on the knuckle, it should want to break free. Make sure you have the nut on there and your safety glasses. All right, that broke free, awesome. Let's remove that inner tie right end nut. For this part right here, we're going to use one of these pickle forks. Come right in through in between the inner tie rod end and this right here, going to hammer it in. Start that on just a couple threads here. Okay, that's separated. Let's start the removal process here. Now we can move along to the next step.

So one of the first things we need to do when we get to the bench is, of course, we'll put a little bit of copper Never-Seez on our threaded area, you can go right on the tie rod ends, and maybe inside the sleeve if you wanted to. Once you have done that and you have those prepped, we're going to take a measuring tape and we're going to measure from one end of this all the way to the other end. Take a quick measurement here, and take note, looks like for me it is 16 and seven-eighths. So, what I am going to do now is I'm going to get this started onto both these tie rod ends at the same time, that is called timing the tie rod ends. We'll screw it in, and then we'll keep measuring until we get to 16 and seven-eighths, which is my measurement.

Start this on, just a couple of threads here, okay. Now I am going to do the same thing for this one, just grabbing the first thread is the hardest part usually. Now that I have both those started, I'm going to try to screw this on. Okay. So that looks pretty decent. At this point, what I want to do is make sure that I have the inner tie rod end lined up with the new inner tie rod end. That looks good, and I am going to make sure that this is aiming up in the same direction as the other one. Just like that.

And the next thing that we want to do is get these bolts so they are lined up just like that. So you can see where the open area is, that is exactly where you want the bolt to be when you crimp this down. That's how it is going to hold the threads the best. Just snug this up, and we're not going to completely tighten this up yet because, of course, we're still going to have to give it a little twist when we get in the vehicle. I just want to kind of make it so it can't flop around on me. That's pretty decent. Just snug, time to get that started in there, it's important to pay attention to your inner tie rod end which has this little blank area of the shanked end, then you have the outer tie rod end that has the threaded area pretty much the whole way. Started. Start in the outer as well, let's go ahead and bottom these out. Let's torque both these nuts to 40 foot-pounds.

So now you are going to look for your cotter pin hole. And that should be a hole that goes through the stud. It needs to line up with the castle nut here. I'm going to take one of my cotter pins and just feel around, that feels like it is almost about to go through. Something that's important to remember is if the cotter pin does not go through, or it is not lined up, you don't want to loosen it so you can put the cotter pin through. You just want to tighten to the point that you can get the cotter pin locked in. Do the same to the other one, that one I can see that it is not lined up. Just going to give it a teeny bit more. Put the cotter pin through, of course, lock it down.

The next thing you want to do is make sure that your tie rods are straight so when you're looking at 'em, you want the stud to look like it's coming straight out. If it isn't, just go ahead and give it a little twist, and then double-check the other side to make sure that that one is good. If for some reason when you have one straight and the other one is turned completely like that, that's going to cause premature wear of the tie rod ends. Make sure they are both straight, and then you can torque these down to 14 foot-pounds. We're just going to double-check the tie rods now that those are snug. That looks straight, this looks straight, perfect. Let's get the wheel on, and get it to the alignment shop.

Time to get the wheel up on here. Start on one of those lug nuts. Now we're just going to start on all the lug nuts, we'll bottom them out and then we'll torque them to 120 foot-pounds. Torque these to 120 foot-pounds. That's torqued. We'll get our cover on here, awesome. And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side. The next thing you would want to do is go ahead and get yourself an alignment.

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1995 - 2000  Chevrolet  Tahoe
1995 - 2000  GMC  Yukon
1995 - 1999  Chevrolet  Tahoe
1994 - 1994  GMC  Suburban K1500
1993 - 1998  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
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1993 - 1998  GMC  K2500 Truck
1993 - 1999  GMC  K1500 Truck
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1992 - 1992  GMC  Yukon
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1988 - 1992  GMC  K1500 Truck
1988 - 1992  Chevrolet  K3500 Truck
1988 - 1992  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1988 - 1992  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
1999 - 1999  Cadillac  Escalade
2000 - 2000  Cadillac  Escalade
1993 - 1999  GMC  Yukon
1995 - 1995  GMC  K1500 Truck
1995 - 1995  Chevrolet  Tahoe
1995 - 1995  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
1994 - 1994  Chevrolet  Suburban K1500
1993 - 1994  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
1993 - 1995  GMC  K2500 Truck
1993 - 1994  GMC  K1500 Truck
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1996 - 1999  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1992 - 1992  Chevrolet  Suburban K1500
1992 - 1992  GMC  Suburban K1500
1992 - 1999  GMC  Suburban K1500
1992 - 1999  Chevrolet  Suburban K1500
1988 - 1995  GMC  K2500 Truck
1988 - 1995  GMC  K1500 Truck
1988 - 1995  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1988 - 1995  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
1992 - 1995  GMC  Yukon
1992 - 1994  Chevrolet  Blazer
1994 - 1999  Chevrolet  Suburban K2500
1994 - 1999  GMC  Suburban K1500
1994 - 1999  GMC  Suburban K2500
1993 - 2000  GMC  K2500 Truck
1993 - 2000  GMC  K3500 Truck
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1993 - 2000  Chevrolet  K3500 Truck
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1993 - 1998  GMC  K1500 Truck
1993 - 1998  GMC  Yukon
1993 - 1998  GMC  K3500 Truck
1998 - 1999  GMC  Yukon
1995 - 1995  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1995 - 1995  GMC  K2500 Truck
1996 - 1996  GMC  K2500 Truck
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1995 - 1997  GMC  Yukon
1988 - 1991  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
1988 - 1994  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1988 - 1991  GMC  K1500 Truck
1988 - 1994  GMC  K2500 Truck
1992 - 1994  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
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1995 - 1998  GMC  Yukon
1995 - 1998  GMC  K2500 Truck
1995 - 1998  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1995 - 1998  GMC  K1500 Truck
1995 - 1998  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
1995 - 1995  GMC  Suburban K2500
1995 - 1999  GMC  Yukon
1995 - 1995  Chevrolet  Suburban K2500
1992 - 1999  GMC  Yukon
1992 - 1993  Chevrolet  Blazer
1988 - 1998  GMC  K2500 Truck
1988 - 1999  GMC  K1500 Truck
1988 - 1998  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1988 - 1999  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
1996 - 2000  Chevrolet  Tahoe
1996 - 2000  GMC  Yukon
1999 - 2000  Cadillac  Escalade
1988 - 1994  GMC  K1500 Truck
1988 - 1994  Chevrolet  K1500 Truck
1995 - 1999  GMC  K2500 Truck
1995 - 1999  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1995 - 1995  GMC  Yukon
1996 - 1997  GMC  Yukon
1988 - 2000  GMC  K3500 Truck
1988 - 2000  GMC  K2500 Truck
1992 - 1999  GMC  Suburban K2500
1992 - 1999  Chevrolet  Suburban K2500
1988 - 2000  Chevrolet  K2500 Truck
1988 - 2000  Chevrolet  K3500 Truck
1990 - 2005  Chevrolet  Astro
1990 - 2005  GMC  Safari
1992 - 1999  GMC  Suburban C2500
1996 - 2002  Chevrolet  Express 1500 Van
1988 - 1999  GMC  C1500 Truck
1988 - 1999  Chevrolet  C1500 Truck
1996 - 2002  GMC  Savana 3500 Van
1992 - 1999  Chevrolet  Suburban C1500
1992 - 1999  Chevrolet  Suburban C2500
1992 - 1999  GMC  Suburban C1500
1988 - 2000  GMC  C2500 Truck
1988 - 2000  GMC  C3500 Truck
1988 - 2000  Chevrolet  C3500 Truck
1996 - 1996  GMC  G3500
1996 - 2002  Chevrolet  Express 2500 Van
1996 - 2002  Chevrolet  Express 3500 Van
1996 - 2002  GMC  Savana 1500 Van
1996 - 2002  GMC  Savana 2500 Van
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1975 - 1986  Chevrolet  C10
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1987 - 1989  Pontiac  Firebird
1987 - 1989  GMC  R2500 Truck
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1987 - 1991  GMC  Suburban R1500
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1987 - 1987  GMC  R1500 Truck
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1987 - 1987  Chevrolet  Suburban R20
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1987 - 1987  Chevrolet  Suburban R10
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1971 - 1972  Chevrolet  G30 Van
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1973 - 1974  GMC  G15/G1500 Van
1973 - 1974  Chevrolet  G20 Van
1973 - 1974  Chevrolet  G30 Van
1973 - 1974  Chevrolet  G10 Van
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1994 - 2000  Chevrolet  C3500 Truck
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1994 - 1999  Chevrolet  Suburban C1500
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1991 - 1994  Oldsmobile  Bravada
1990 - 1998  GMC  P3500
1991 - 1996  Buick  Roadmaster
1989 - 1991  Chevrolet  Suburban R2500
1990 - 1992  Cadillac  Brougham
1988 - 1989  Pontiac  LeMans
1989 - 1991  Chevrolet  Suburban R1500
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1996 - 2001  GMC  Jimmy
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1995 - 1995  Chevrolet  Blazer
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1994 - 1995  GMC  Jimmy
1994 - 1995  GMC  G2500
1994 - 1995  GMC  G3500
1994 - 1995  GMC  G1500
2000 - 2000  Isuzu  Hombre
1999 - 1999  GMC  P3500
1998 - 1999  Chevrolet  P30
1996 - 1999  Isuzu  Hombre
1996 - 2001  Oldsmobile  Bravada
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1965 - 1985  Buick  LeSabre
1959 - 1981  Pontiac  Catalina
1963 - 1984  Oldsmobile  98
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1968 - 1970  Pontiac  Executive
1968 - 1991  Oldsmobile  Delta 88
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1968 - 1968  Oldsmobile  Delmont 88
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1971 - 1971  Jeep  J-3800
1971 - 1972  Jeep  J-2500
1971 - 1972  Jeep  J-100

Kit image

Chevrolet GMC Front 12 Piece Steering & Suspension Kit TRQ PSA69983

Part Details:

  • (2) Front Sway Bar Links
  • (2) Front Lower Ball Joints
  • (2) Front Upper Control Arms with Ball Joints
  • 12 Piece
  • (2) Front Tie Rod Adjusting Sleeves
  • (2) Front Outer Tie Rods
  • (2) Front Inner Tie Rods
$234.95
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