Date:         Tue, 14 Nov 1995 12:04:07 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         wabbott@megatest.com (William Abbott)
Subject:      Tie Rod Ends

	Steve,
	If they're anything like my 77 Rabbit's, you'll be better
off with what they call a "Pickle Fork" than using a puller. I have
a nice three-arm-puller and ended up borrowing (yes, you read that right)
the pickle fork from A&M Motor in Los Gatos. I'd been doing a lot
of business with them and I think they were just in a good mood. But
you can rent or buy one cheaply. Its a two-tined fork, like a BBQ fork
but with shorter tines, and viewed from the side, you can see that
the tines have a dramatic taper to their point. 
	To use the pickle fork, you first try Liquid Wrench and
a puller, etc, *AND* remember to remove the nut that hold the end
through the steering knuckle! Now put the points of the fork between the
tie-rod-end and the steering knuckle and push it in as far as it will go.
Now take a hammer and give it a smart whack. It took me about 30 seconds,
after spending an hour futzing with the puller, etc.

	Once the tie rod end is free of the steering knuckle, you
can just unscew it from the steering, BUT WAIT. First measure the end-to-end
length of the steering + tie rods. Like, measure from one tie-rod end to
the other. When you install the new one, you want to get as close to
that dimension as you can putting it together, even though you're just
going to drive down to the alignment place and have it aligned. People
who are better mechanics than I do their own alignment, and its possible
and I admire them greatly. (I know, what a wimp!)

	Cheers!
	Bill