Tie Rod Tubes Too Long?

[Pdr1966]

Installing new Delphi tie rods with original tubes - honestly looks like the assembly is too long - I am down to about 1 cm of thread sticking out of each tube, and the hubs are still toe in by eye.
Anyone seen this?
Meanwhile - to get the inner tie rods fastened to the center link - not good access and I am concerned that the tie rod is going to turn before it grabs in the taper? - may need a long long 3/8th extension down from above - any other suggestions?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Installing new Delphi tie rods with original tubes - honestly looks like the assembly is too long - I am down to about 1 cm of thread sticking out of each tube, and the hubs are still toe in by eye.
Anyone seen this?

As long as you can get the toe-in correct and still have a few threads remaining, you should be OK. My first thought was that you don't have the right tie rod ends as there were two different sizes (thread lengths) depending on model year. Later models had threads all the way down the shaft whereas some very early tie-rods only had threads on roughly 2/3rds of the shaft. Which do you have?

On your second question, I get a regular nut without the nylon thread lock, squeeze the tie rod into the taper (sometimes using vise-grips to hold it tightly together), spin on the regular nut until it's tight, then back off the regular nut and install the nylon locknut. This works for the ball joints nuts, too.

-Bryan

[Pdr1966]

It did work out in the end. Weight on the suspension helped and I was able to align with what I had in threads.