I replaced the inner and outer tie rod ends on the drivers side yesterday. It was a direct replacement so I made sure that the new tie rods (fully assembled) were the exact same length as the old ones. Now the steering wheel is clocked to the 11:00 position when driving in a straight line. Alignment feels good cause I can let off the steering wheel driving down the road and the car stays straight.

I'm planning on taking it into the alignment shop soon anyway but in the meanwhile is this something I can adjust relatively easily?

you'll need the alignment. something moved or is off after the work. you could attempt to adjust it yourself a couple turns either way and see if you get it straight again.

Keep the tires straight. Looen the lock nut for the outer tie rods. Remove the outer tie rods from the knukle. Just loosen the nut and rap the edge of the kunukle where the stud goes thru it'll pop loose. Remove the nut and tie rod. Then get the steering wheel straight. Now adjust the tierod ends so they'll go back in the knunkle WITHOUT moving the wheels!! If you try to straighten the sterring wheel out by adjusting the tierods while they're connected you'll loose the alignment! You'll change the toe in toe out. And you won't get it back yourself.

Did you count the turns of the old outer tie rod end onto new tie rod end and try to duplicate that on the new ones? That usually gets it close to start. When I did mine even counting the turns the left front toe out was out by nearly 1/2" when I was done. I used the strings alignment method to do the adjustment, it can be pretty accurate if you take your time and actually probably doesn't take much longer than sitting in the waiting room at a shop. Using white out, with the steering wheel centered, I put a little hash mark at the top of the steering wheel to the plastic cover thing behind it so I can put the wheel at exactly that spot each time.

 

getting the string lined up

THanks guys. I checked it out while I was in the parking lot this morning (using the white lines that divide the parking spaces as a straight edge). I think the drivers side tie rod needs to come out a tad.

 

Yes, I counted the threads before disassembling the old tie rod unit. In fact I used digital calipers to measure the same two points on both old and new. They were right on when I put it together, but evidently something is not the same about the two...

 

I'm still planning on an alignment next week. I just want to get it close now because I can hear a Whuuh-Whuuh-Whuuh-Whuuh-Whuuh... while I'm driving on smooth surfaces. Don't want to chew up my tire before I get it in.