Grease for New Tie Rod

[RoGuE]

I just purchased some new Moog tie rods for my Malibu and a new grease gun. The tie rods seem to have a little blue grease already applied. The grease gun came with this grease in the attached photo. Is this compatible and the right kind of grease for these tie rods?

Grease Tube Photo

 

[Trav]

That will work, these joints must be greased before putting them in service, the grease you see is only used as a corrosion protector and not enough to protect the joint in service.
I prefer this high moly grease for front end joints, it hangs in there a long time and resist washout. It is not for wheel bearings or u joints.

https://www.amazon.com/Schaeffer-Manufac...&dpSrc=srch

 

[buck91]

Yup, most any lithium grease used regularly will suffice. If you want the luxury of less religious maintenance intervals or the best possible grease for the application look at a lithium complex fortified with moly.

 

[RoGuE]

What would be a regular maintenance interval for putting in new grease? Every oil change (once a year for me)? I've never had to deal with greasing anything before.

Also, when I grease these up after installation, how do I know how much to put in? Until I see them swell up a little?

 

[Ducked]

Does it go inside a rubber boot?

If so, it would seem rubber compatibility ought to be an issue, but for some reason, or unreason, it never seems to be considered.

Silicon-moly?

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: RoGuE
What would be a regular maintenance interval for putting in new grease? Every oil change (once a year for me)? I've never had to deal with greasing anything before.
Also, when I grease these up after installation, how do I know how much to put in? Until I see them swell up a little?


Lots of tie rod boots are not sealed, so when you grease them, some grease will probably come out. When you see grease come out, or if you see the rubber move from the presence of grease, stop putting in grease. Now if you have an application that has a sealed boot, like a lot of ball joints, and the boot is sealed and looks pregnant and is ready to pop, don't grease it. You will only rupture the rubber seal and allow dirt and water inside, ruining it in a short time.

 

[littleant]

Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: RoGuE
What would be a regular maintenance interval for putting in new grease? Every oil change (once a year for me)? I've never had to deal with greasing anything before.
Also, when I grease these up after installation, how do I know how much to put in? Until I see them swell up a little?


Lots of tie rod boots are not sealed, so when you grease them, some grease will probably come out. When you see grease come out, or if you see the rubber move from the presence of grease, stop putting in grease. Now if you have an application that has a sealed boot, like a lot of ball joints, and the boot is sealed and looks pregnant and is ready to pop, don't grease it. You will only rupture the rubber seal and allow dirt and water inside, ruining it in a short time.
Perfect answer Kruse. On tie rods not sealed a little grease will remove any water. Sealed joints never rupture the boot with to much grease.

 

[RoGuE]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll tackle this next weekend (my preferred alignment had no availability today). Hopefully replacing this tie rods will fix my wandering at highway speed issue. They don't have any perceptible movement that I can feel by hand, but they are very loose when wiggled around.

 

[doitmyself]

Rogue,

I just replaced my daugther's tie rod ends on her 2011 Malibu with the Moog problem solvers. I meticulously determined where the existing center line of the old tie rods were so that I could install the new ones to the almost exact same point (no alignment needed).

The old tie rods pop out of the tapered aluminum knuckle very easy. A problem I encountered was that the lock nut was very difficult to turn off the last 1/4" of threads without the whole spindle turning. The EASIEST way to get if off is to cut through the spindle with the tool of your choice (Sawzall, cutoff wheel, etc.). Do not damage the aluminum knuckle. I wrestled the first one off by locking the spindle with good vice grips. Cutting the second one off was MUCH easier.

The bottom of the boots on ours were not sealed. When I pumped a shot or two of grease in, the boots swelled quickly. I learned that by gently prying/pulling/squeezing on the bottom of the boot, it "burped" (released trapped air) and settled down a bit and I pumped another half lever of grease in.

The new tie rod ends have a castle nut with cotter key. The old ones had a lock nut. The proper torque seems to be around 45 - 55 ft. lbs.. The included cotter keys seem thin (3/32") and I used one size up in thickness (1/8").

 

[eljefino]

Yeah, always good practice to wire wheel/ PB blast those exposed threads. The TRE shank only has so much friction and if your nut running torque is worse it can be a PI TA.

I like to give my new greasable TREs about 3 pumps before installation because sometimes the zerk is in a bad place or just won't take grease with my stupid gun. Its fault? Mine? Hard saying, but a little prevention makes the job start off right.

Some boots have a little manufacturer provided vent/burp flap of rubber but you should get instructions saying pump till they burp if you do.

 

[RoGuE]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Rogue,

I just replaced my daugther's tie rod ends on her 2011 Malibu with the Moog problem solvers. I meticulously determined where the existing center line of the old tie rods were so that I could install the new ones to the almost exact same point (no alignment needed).

The old tie rods pop out of the tapered aluminum knuckle very easy. A problem I encountered was that the lock nut was very difficult to turn off the last 1/4" of threads without the whole spindle turning. The EASIEST way to get if off is to cut through the spindle with the tool of your choice (Sawzall, cutoff wheel, etc.). Do not damage the aluminum knuckle. I wrestled the first one off by locking the spindle with good vice grips. Cutting the second one off was MUCH easier.

The bottom of the boots on ours were not sealed. When I pumped a shot or two of grease in, the boots swelled quickly. I learned that by gently prying/pulling/squeezing on the bottom of the boot, it "burped" (released trapped air) and settled down a bit and I pumped another half lever of grease in.

The new tie rod ends have a castle nut with cotter key. The old ones had a lock nut. The proper torque seems to be around 45 - 55 ft. lbs.. The included cotter keys seem thin (3/32") and I used one size up in thickness (1/8").


I got this done last night and went for an alignment this morning (it really needed it to begin with). The factory TRE had a hex head on the bottom of it so I was able to hold it in place with a socket.

The huge pain was the darn jam nut. Whoever did my last alignment years back really tightened them down. What I ended up doing was positioning the wrench on the nut, and using the screw jack from the trunk to put a little pressure on the wrench lifting it little by little while drenching the nut in penetrating oil. Worked great. Anyway, I greased up the TRE until it started to swell, which took quite a few pumps from this little grease gun. The steering definitely feels more direct now

 

[eljefino]

You can also put a pipe wrench on the flats of the inner tie rod then pull the outer TRE and hit the jam nut from outside with a long impact socket.

 

[littleant]

Valvoline Palladium. 160,000 miles on the original front-end on my 02 jeep. Outstanding grease