What would consist of a suitable puller?

army_inc · Post by **army_inc** » Tue May 08, 2012 5:24 am

Ok guys. I'm making my secondary frame my primary since Bubba butchered my primary frame. I'm trying to get the secondary frame ready for sandblasting. Anyways, I'm trying to drop the front axle, but before I get to that part, I want to disconnect the steering tie rods from the wheel steering nuckles. I went to the Auto store to rent a puller. Well, I ended up trying two and both just don't seem right. I don't think I was explaining it well enough or maybe I did and they didn't understand. The tie rod puller kit they gave me at first seemed WAAAAAY too big. Anyone have the "technical name" of one I can rent so I can get these little boogers off? The book say use a "suitable puller" so I'm assuming that would be a tie rod puller, it's just the one I got yesterday seemed like the wrong one to me. Any help?

Post by **wesk** » Tue May 08, 2012 8:50 am

You separate tie rod ends with a Pickle Fork. Or ball joint separator tool.
http://www.amazon.com/K-Tool-Internatio ... B000BHNZRM

I always undue the nut and crack the joint on it's outer side sharply with a 8 oz or larger ballpeen hammer and they pop right apart. The fork is for the tough ones.

There are fancier tools and pullers that have been introduced over the years to better control rod end damage for the modern rack&pinion steering systems. Also for the pitman arm.

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/search_k ... +Rod+Tools

army_inc · Post by **army_inc** » Tue May 08, 2012 8:55 am

Well, I'm trying to take the tie rod off of the steering knuckle. I may have worded it wrong. so try a nice hard hit with an 8 oz ballpeen hammer? That would cause the tie rod to be removed from the knuckle? I'll give it a try.

jimm · Post by **jimm** » Tue May 08, 2012 2:55 pm

wesk wrote:
I always undue the nut and crack the joint on it's outer side sharply with a 8 oz or larger ballpeen hammer and they pop right apart. The fork is for the tough ones.

I've had fairly good success with a slight variation of this technique: After loosening the nut, I back the rod end up with the heaviest hammer I have that will fit in the space on one side, and then whack it good directly opposite the backup with my 2 lb ball peen hammer. Sometimes it takes multiple blows before it pops loose. If still no go after that, time for the pickle fork.
The good thing about the hammer technique is that it doesn't destroy the rubber boots like the pickle fork does, but it is hard on good paint job.

army_inc · Post by **army_inc** » Tue May 08, 2012 8:13 pm

I used the ballpeen hammer and it worked like a charm. I was able to disconnect the tie rods and the entire front axle from the frame. Very excited as I will soon be swapping parts from the old frame to this new one