Inner tie rod / steering bellow clamp ideas

[peril]

Hi All, 

(It's so tight in there.) 

I'm replacing the inner tie rod on a 2010 Legacy, and would appreciate any hints to secure the rack / inner boot - I busted up the first boot getting it off, and don't have any apparent easy access to reuse the large metal clip over the rack and pinion housing. Once I figured out the feel of the clamp - I will be able to take the other side off without too much hassle. 

I'm doing this from jack stands - and could put the car on quickjacks if the extra 6-12 inches might help provide an attack angle.  Also thinking what is the easiest to service in the future.

I am replacing the bellows, but looking for experience from others.

Options are

1) hose clamp 

2) zip ties

3) ??? any other suggestions? 

 

thx, 

Adrian

[Scubaboo]

I've used zipties on other vehicles with no problems.

As long as you get the appropriate size (I try to use a ziptie as wide as the groove in the boot), IMO you should be ok.

Now is a good time to check rack bushings BTW.  I found mine were toast when I tried pulling up/down on the tie rods and felt a bit of play.  Thought they were rack ends at first.

They were a lot of work though, my mechanic pulled down the entire subframe to change out those bushings.

[peril]

so was able to get the ziptie on there - but couldn't get it tight enough due to how tight it was in the armored steering rack area - I was able to get a regular old hose clamp onto the bellow / boot and tighten it down - if I REALLY cared - I could have made a ziptie work - but the bellows is either on / off - when I couldn't pull it off with the hose clamp - I was happy.

Interesting you mention the steering rack bushing, as they would have play but the tie rods could be ok. I'm looking at the whole subframe setup and think that I can probably handle dropping it out altogether as long as I'm willing to remove the axle bolts. (It looks uh, difficult, but not impossible if the subframe bolts move.)

The steering rack alignment on the spline looks like an interesting tidbit, (but if I were to paint mark it on (2) sides -  it woudn't be too bad.)

Edited June 13, 2023 by peril

[Scubaboo]

This is what it looked like.

[Img][/img]

Yes I suggest marking the steering coupling, they tried to keep the steering wheel from moving with bungees but it moved a bit and they had to re-center it.