Thread: Tie rods

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Roger, here's what seems to work.
- With the tie rod loosely installed, push both balljoint studs fully to the rear. This makes sure that nothing moves, and that the balljoint studs are aligned with each other.
- Adjust the tie rod length by turning it in the appropriate direction
- Bring both jam nuts to finger tight
- Tighten both jam nuts very slightly with a wrench, making sure that the tie rod itself doesn't turn
- Tighten both jam nuts with wrenches on both ends as you suggested.

After tightening them, I used the opposing wrenches to loosen the jam nuts and then re-tightened them. No problems.

I think the main thing throwing me off was not having the ball joint studs pushed all the way back. I think it is important to have the ball joint studs parallel to each other on a tube axle. Once the nuts are tightened, the ball joint studs are free to seek their own position but they will always stay aligned.