Serious warning; aftermarket tie rod ends

The last few weeks I've been filling in as a mechanic at a friend's shop
as his best mechanic has been in the hospital (he's doing better though,
I spoke to him yesterday and he sounded well. Hopefully he'll be back
soon, as this is not something that I particularly enjoy doing.) A
couple times I have seen aftermarket tie rod ends come in that are
simply made wrong; the original parts use Nylocks for the nut on the
stud but the new ones use a castellated nut and a cotter pin in the
traditional manner. Well, that's OK, right, and probably easier to
service down the road? Not so much... the hole for the cotter pin is
drilled in the wrong place! To get the cotter pin to actually lock
between some castellations you have to stack up a couple washers under
the nut. I'm not real comfortable with that, but that's what you have
to do to make these parts work.

Sure enough, yesterday a customer came in for an oil change and I shook
one of the wheels and found some play... looked under the car and there
was one of those damn tie rod ends; the nut had backed off until the
face of the nut finally hit the cotter pin and the stud was loose in the
steering knuckle, causing the play I felt. Worse news, her LF tire was
beyond corded on the inside. Apparently a family member meaning to be
helpful had purchased this tie rod end at AutoZone and installed it for
her; she was planning on getting an alignment next week. Well, now she
needs at a minimum some washers, a cotter pin, and a new tire in
addition to the alignment... assuming that the tapered hole in the
knuckle isn't wallowed out from driving it like that. I really don't
enjoy giving people bad news like that, and I feel that I'm throwing a
well meaning person under the bus when in reality his only mistakes were
trusting that the aftermarket parts were made correctly and not looking
closely at the installed part with a flashlight after the job was done.

Just a heads up, be careful and watch what you're doing when installing
new aftermarket suspension components... I'd like to say "stick with
good brands like Moog and TRW and you'll be OK" but I can't say that
they're not the same Chinese crap in different boxes.

The frustrating thing is that the auto parts stores in the area of my
friend's shop (yes, even NAPA and CarQuest) have all discontinued their
Pik-A-Nut selection, so if you need a piece of hardware to finish a job
(e.g. some hardened 12mm or 1/2" washers) you're well and truly screwed
unless Fastenal is open and you have time to drive there...

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

Nate Nagel wrote:
> The last few weeks I've been filling in as a mechanic at a friend's shop
> as his best mechanic has been in the hospital (he's doing better though,
> I spoke to him yesterday and he sounded well. Hopefully he'll be back
> soon, as this is not something that I particularly enjoy doing.) A
> couple times I have seen aftermarket tie rod ends come in that are
> simply made wrong; the original parts use Nylocks for the nut on the
> stud but the new ones use a castellated nut and a cotter pin in the
> traditional manner. Well, that's OK, right, and probably easier to
> service down the road? Not so much... the hole for the cotter pin is
> drilled in the wrong place! To get the cotter pin to actually lock
> between some castellations you have to stack up a couple washers under
> the nut. I'm not real comfortable with that, but that's what you have to
> do to make these parts work.
>
> Sure enough, yesterday a customer came in for an oil change and I shook
> one of the wheels and found some play... looked under the car and there
> was one of those damn tie rod ends; the nut had backed off until the
> face of the nut finally hit the cotter pin and the stud was loose in the
> steering knuckle,..................

So the cotter pin did it's job.

If the tie rod end nut was installed/torqued properly, it wouldn't have
loosened up, and wouldn't have tested the cotter pin's ability to stop
it from falling all the way off.

GW

Geoff Welsh wrote:
> Nate Nagel wrote:

>> Sure enough, yesterday a customer came in for an oil change and I shook
>> one of the wheels and found some play... looked under the car and there
>> was one of those damn tie rod ends; the nut had backed off until the
>> face of the nut finally hit the cotter pin and the stud was loose in the
>> steering knuckle,..................
>
> So the cotter pin did it's job.
>
> If the tie rod end nut was installed/torqued properly, it wouldn't have
> loosened up, and wouldn't have tested the cotter pin's ability to stop
> it from falling all the way off.
>
> GW

Those were my thoughts, too.

On 1/12/2014 7:33 AM, Nate Nagel wrote:
> The last few weeks I've been filling in as a mechanic at a friend's shop
> as his best mechanic has been in the hospital (he's doing better though,
> I spoke to him yesterday and he sounded well. Hopefully he'll be back
> soon, as this is not something that I particularly enjoy doing.) A
> couple times I have seen aftermarket tie rod ends come in that are
> simply made wrong; the original parts use Nylocks for the nut on the
> stud but the new ones use a castellated nut and a cotter pin in the
> traditional manner. Well, that's OK, right, and probably easier to
> service down the road? Not so much... the hole for the cotter pin is
> drilled in the wrong place! To get the cotter pin to actually lock
> between some castellations you have to stack up a couple washers under
> the nut. I'm not real comfortable with that, but that's what you have
> to do to make these parts work.
>
> Sure enough, yesterday a customer came in for an oil change and I shook
> one of the wheels and found some play... looked under the car and there
> was one of those damn tie rod ends; the nut had backed off until the
> face of the nut finally hit the cotter pin and the stud was loose in the
> steering knuckle, causing the play I felt. Worse news, her LF tire was
> beyond corded on the inside. Apparently a family member meaning to be
> helpful had purchased this tie rod end at AutoZone and installed it for
> her; she was planning on getting an alignment next week. Well, now she
> needs at a minimum some washers, a cotter pin, and a new tire in
> addition to the alignment... assuming that the tapered hole in the
> knuckle isn't wallowed out from driving it like that. I really don't
> enjoy giving people bad news like that, and I feel that I'm throwing a
> well meaning person under the bus when in reality his only mistakes were
> trusting that the aftermarket parts were made correctly and not looking
> closely at the installed part with a flashlight after the job was done.
>
> Just a heads up, be careful and watch what you're doing when installing
> new aftermarket suspension components... I'd like to say "stick with
> good brands like Moog and TRW and you'll be OK" but I can't say that
> they're not the same Chinese crap in different boxes.
>
> The frustrating thing is that the auto parts stores in the area of my
> friend's shop (yes, even NAPA and CarQuest) have all discontinued their
> Pik-A-Nut selection, so if you need a piece of hardware to finish a job
> (e.g. some hardened 12mm or 1/2" washers) you're well and truly screwed
> unless Fastenal is open and you have time to drive there...
>
> nate
>

The part was installed by an idiot.

On Monday, January 13, 2014 10:37:32 PM UTC-5, Geoff Welsh wrote:
> Nate Nagel wrote:
>
> > The last few weeks I've been filling in as a mechanic at a friend's shop
>
> > as his best mechanic has been in the hospital (he's doing better though,
>
> > I spoke to him yesterday and he sounded well. Hopefully he'll be back
>
> > soon, as this is not something that I particularly enjoy doing.) A
>
> > couple times I have seen aftermarket tie rod ends come in that are
>
> > simply made wrong; the original parts use Nylocks for the nut on the
>
> > stud but the new ones use a castellated nut and a cotter pin in the
>
> > traditional manner. Well, that's OK, right, and probably easier to
>
> > service down the road? Not so much... the hole for the cotter pin is
>
> > drilled in the wrong place! To get the cotter pin to actually lock
>
> > between some castellations you have to stack up a couple washers under
>
> > the nut. I'm not real comfortable with that, but that's what you have to
>
> > do to make these parts work.
>
> >
>
> > Sure enough, yesterday a customer came in for an oil change and I shook
>
> > one of the wheels and found some play... looked under the car and there
>
> > was one of those damn tie rod ends; the nut had backed off until the
>
> > face of the nut finally hit the cotter pin and the stud was loose in the
>
> > steering knuckle,..................
>
>
>
> So the cotter pin did it's job.
>
>
>
> If the tie rod end nut was installed/torqued properly, it wouldn't have
>
> loosened up, and wouldn't have tested the cotter pin's ability to stop
>
> it from falling all the way off.
>
>
>
> GW

I would agree with that statement to an extent; but I'd also feel better if the nut were to loosen for whatever reason that it rotate a small fraction of a turn and stop (and therefore hopefully retain at least a fraction of the clamping force on the tapered stud) rather than loosen several turns, possibly shear the cotter pin, and definitely cause the stud to become loose.. Just sayin'...