Tie rod tapers

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I'm wondering about the tapers for tie rods, idler arm, etc. Do I use anti seize or is that a bad thing to do with tapers. Can I leave the blaster or should it be dry? Will any kind of lubrication do more harm than good on a taper?

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I have used grease and antiseize before but you can easily run into issues when trying to torque them as they will just spin.
 
Torque it dry and torque it TO SPEC. Too loose and you'll bugger the thing during use, too tight and best case you can mess up the female taper, have a rough time getting it off next time, or worst case: crack whatever that secures to
 
Originally Posted by SnowDrifter
Torque it dry and torque it TO SPEC. Too loose and you'll bugger the thing during use, too tight and best case you can mess up the female taper, have a rough time getting it off next time, or worst case: crack whatever that secures to

40 ft lbs it is.. I could not get the pitman arm off the center link. Brand new. But I didn't do it so who knows how they put it on
 
The mistake I was about to make was I used quite a bit of PB Blaster to get them separated. But I didn't plan on cleaning that off. I just sprayed them down real good with brake cleaner.
 
Originally Posted by Kestas
Rust is an issue here. I always butter them with antiseize. I don't see a downside to it.


You don't see an issue? The point of a tapered assembly is friction fit. You add a lubricant or anti seize then you are defeating the purpose of the assembly. If/when the joint spins in the taper while going down the road it will wear the taper out quickly and you'll end up with sloppy steering and make the repair you made previously twice as expensive

With that mentality you might as well put brake grease on the face of the brake rotors when doing a brake job.
 
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I have never seen evidence of tapers with antiseize rotating in use. And I have revisited tie rods that needed replacing again, so I'm sure I would have seen any problems. There is enough friction in a properly torqued assembly to preclude movement, similar to lubricated lug nuts.

But I have had a devil of a time getting tapers loose because of corrosion.
 
All sorts of ball joints on a 528e front end.. Getting the nut off was the easy part. Pressure and shock properly applied pops them out of the taper.. I used big washers to pull taper together tightly enough to get a good tight on the nuts.
 
Originally Posted by mattd
Originally Posted by Kestas
Rust is an issue here. I always butter them with antiseize. I don't see a downside to it.


You don't see an issue? The point of a tapered assembly is friction fit. You add a lubricant or anti seize then you are defeating the purpose of the assembly. If/when the joint spins in the taper while going down the road it will wear the taper out quickly and you'll end up with sloppy steering and make the repair you made previously twice as expensive

With that mentality you might as well put brake grease on the face of the brake rotors when doing a brake job.


Maybe. The joint will not spin at the taper while driving unless the ball-joint in it is already shot, (or you couldn't get it to the right torque spec because it was spinning in the hole so it was loose the whole time). and related to that is it "could" make it more difficult to get off the next time you replace it because the stud just spins the ball instead of breaking the nut free, then you may need to cut or grind the stud off to remove it... which isn't all that big a deal, but the point is it would be extra worth to lube the tapered stud then could end up extra work again later, two additional amounts of work without benefit and possible detriment if attention is not paid to details.

Do also use sandpaper or a wire reamer brush to clean out the mating hole the tapered stud fits into.
 
I have torn the front end of my Tb down countless times for all sorts of repairs and inspections. I have used grease and antiseize on those tapers as previously stated. I used to butter them up but now just use a light dose. They do turn a touch on reassembly but not bad as I know what to watch for. Disassembly never proved an issue as you hit the nut with an impact and it is off before you know it. A light tap and the tie rod end falls out.
 
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