How was those duralast tie rods

 

They still feel real stable, no problems as of yet

 

I just replaced my inner and outer tie rods on my 2005 G35x today. This guide was excellent!

Although, I did get the Harbor Freight tool to work properly. The trick was to jack up the suspension under the knuckle to get enough clearance for the tool to fit. If you don't jack up the suspension you can't get a straight on shot to the inner tie rod with the tool because the rotor is in the way.

Even though I counted the turns removing the outer rods and installed the new outer rods with the same number of turns, my alignment is really off. The steering wheel has to be about 15 degrees to the left to go straight. But I was expecting to have to have it realigned anyway after I replace the rods. The dreaded VDC and slip lights are on now too. I am hoping that this is because of the steering wheel and alignment being off. The lights don't come on until driving.

I think the car had the original tie rods in it. The car has 140K miles on it. The rods weren't too bad for that many miles I guess. The ball joints were loose and the bushing were a greasy mess. The large clamp on the boot is junk. Both of them busted trying to take them off. I replaced them with stainless steel hose clamps. I have no idea who decided to use those wacky twist-tie cable clamps in the first place.

 

How do you get the grooves in the lock washer while its on