Hi folks,

I finished my tie rods and tie rod ends, and I'm pleased with how fast the job went after I figured out exactly how to free the inner tie rods. It is a ZF rack with the peened inner tie rod, and I found that drilling into the indentation, and into the tie rod, completely removed the peen. I chose to change how the new inner tie rods went on, on the advice of several things I read - instead of taking my hammer and punch and making a new peen, I used Loctite.

That's where my questions come in. I counterheld the rack shaft with vise-grips, but I was reluctant to apply much torque on reassembly lest I slip. The torque on the inner tie rods must be no more than 15-20 ft-lbs. I applied a couple drops of blue threadlocker to each tie rod.

Thanks to you all and to the invaluable FAQ. If anyone here is doing this in the future and has no idea what a 'peen' is, I took photos.

Ari