tie rod ends and ball joints

[nodemgr]

Was throwing my summer wheels on this weekend and noticed my right tie rod end is bad. I figure I'd replace both with moog parts, but then I thought I may as well replace the U/L ball joints at the same time, since I'm throwing on kbees and the new control arms. $367 in parts, wow.

Anyways are there any gotchas for replacing these parts? I have ball joint pullers and I figure I will measure the threads on the old tie rod to transfer some kind of measurement to the new tie rod so I can make it to the alignment shop.

[CrawlinTBSS]

i just got Moogs tierods to do on my SS as well .my buddy said they are the best ones they carry. for tierods, loosen the nut then try and keep it right where your setup is now, unscrew old tierod and install new one up to the nut and tighten and youll be at least fairly close to what you where, to get you to an alignment shop.

[nodemgr]

Yep good idea. By the way I read in a thread that the ball joint installer 23 piece kit from Advance Auto Parts is a a good rental for this type of stuff.

[nodemgr]

Well got the bad tie rod fixed on the passenger side. The one on the driver side was good, and I couldn't unscrew it. The jam nut removed fine, but I just didn't have the right tools to unscrew it - maybe the passenger side being bad loosened the tie rod so it was easy to remove on that side. Also the ball joints were OK, so I didn't remove them. The 23 piece ball joint it from advance auto looks like it's too big for the top ball joint, unless you remove the whole assembly from the car. I could be wrong, but the screw in the c-clamp would hit the body or the top of the wheel well. May need a cold chisel on the bottom ball joint, can't tell if that's a crimp or not.

But I put in the DJM a-arms and Kbees at the same time, so I'm good to go at 31.5".