HD TieRods and Firestone

[bartmanS4]

So I installed a set of the HD tie rods from Indy4X4 which went smoothly and these really are much beefier than the stock ones. Then I went to Firestone and got me a lifetime alignment.
I had a free day yesterday and decided to head down to the Great Sand Dunes by way of Medano Pass. While driving down the highway from Denver to Pueblo I noticed that although the VX was driving fine the steering wheel was off center and getting ever so slowly worse appearing to be turning left. I stopped for gas and took at the tie rods to see if I could see a problem. Well the locking nuts, all four of them were completely loose. I used a couple of big crescent wrenches to lock them down and decided to continue on. The rest of the trip the VX did fine although it is a little squirrely on the highway, not bad though. I am pretty pissed off though at Firestone. That is a very dangerous mistake to make. Imagine if one of the tie rods let go at highway speed. I'm heading back to their shop now to give them a piece of my mind. I don't want to get anyone fired but I do want to stress to them the implications of this error.

P.S. Medano Pass was a lot of fun, I teamed up with a Jeeper at the air down stop and he was pretty impressed with the VX's capabilities. Not that the trail was very tough. I wanted to scout it out for a friend that has a stock LR Discovery. He should be fine doing this trail. I did see a bear too!

[tom4bren]

Yah, one of my lock nuts was left loose too after installing the HD tie rod ends. The installer also left off one of the dust boots. All is well now though.

You'll have to have Firestone actually put it back on the rack to check alignment. With all 4 lock nuts loose, your tow-in probably shifted (since it's pulling and the steering wheel is not centered).

Were they able to install some zerk fittings for you? The shop said that the assortment pack I provided didn't fit so I still don't have them on mine.

[bartmanS4]

I did the install myself and put in the zerk fittings without issue. The kit came with two sets of dust boots. I only used one boot per end, don't know what the extra boots are for.

[tom4bren]

Cool on the Zerks. I'll get mine on as soon as I can.

I wasn't implying that you left the lock nuts loose. Part of the alignment process is to loosen them for adjustment & then re-tighten. It was absolutely Firestone's fault. Even if they didn't need to make an adjustment, they should have checked that they were tight.

The extra boots are just that ... extras. It would be a shame to replace those expensive HD tie rods just because the boots cracked. Check them each time you shoot some grease in them.

[VXorado]

Too bad about the alignment Scott. The alignment I got from Brake plus before Moab also wasn't too great. I need to take it back in at some point.


Glad the wheeling went well, we should plan a trail run. Also, I would like to finish the final tweaking on your SFIFS sometime this summer.

[bartmanS4]

Hey Tom when you install the zerks treat them like you would a tap, alternating in a little and then back out.

I didn't think you were implying anything. It's all good.

Scott