Hello All:

Talk about getting it wrong - I am such an idiot. This is what I get for inspecting the thing in the driveway, going off memory instead of making a diagram and then ordering parts from work. Turns out the previous owner - a Volvo technician - was exactly right. He DID change out the passenger (right) side outer tie rod. It also looks like he swapped out the driver (left) side tie rod end on the center rod so I assume that is what he means by "inner tie rod."

So where is my soon-to-be-failure? On the passenger-side tie rod END, the part that screws out and can be replaced. Fortunately, I think the FCP Groton folk did not get a shipment out today so I will get them to replace it with the proper unit.

Now that I know my way around this thing a little bit better I also examined the driver side outer tie rod and noticed that it is looking mighty wonky, including an oozing seal and slight bend. George was right - as usual - the new tie rod has a nylon nut and the old one has a castle nut with split pin. I think I will just bite the bullet, get the driver-side tie rod and the passenger-side rod end and have a steering rack that is just slightly out-of-sync in terms of freshness.

Has anyone mounted a webcam under their Amazon so they can look at it from work? Sheesh.

Cheers,

Pooch