How to Replace Outer Tie Rod End 2005-15 Toyota Tacoma

Once your vehicle is raised and supported safely, you're gonna remove all six lug nuts. All right. So now that the wheel's off, we have a clear view of our jam nut. Go ahead and spray that down with some penetrant. Once you've let it sit for a little while, break the jam nut free.

The next thing we're gonna do is get this cotter pin out of here. This one's obviously very rotted. I'm just gonna cut it. Okay. It's not coming out. I'm gonna grab the socket and just kind of put it over the top of this. It's gonna peen down on that cotter pin, and then we'll just take the nut off. I'm just gonna start that nut on just a couple threads here, just so it can't fall. Spray down this area. Now we're gonna hit right here on the knuckle and try to break the outer tie rod end from the knuckle. Okay. Time to get the outer tie rod end off. Just go ahead and spin it, and while you spin it to the left, count those threads. One, two, and so on. Just take note of that number and write it down somewhere.

Now we're just gonna do the same on the other side of the vehicle. Let's go ahead and spray down the inner tie rod end area with some copper never seize. All right. Now let's go ahead and put on our outer tie rod end. Make sure that you count back to the original number when you took it off. Go ahead and bring that jam nut down to the outer tie rod end. We're not gonna snug it up yet because we need to start it into the knuckle. So now we're gonna take our castle nut. We're gonna start it on the outer tie rod end. After that, we're gonna bottom it out, and then we'll torque it to manufacturer's specifications. Let's go ahead and bottom this out. Now torque it to 67-foot-pounds. Once you have your castle nut torqued down to the manufacturer's specifications, you wanna pay attention to where the cotter pin's gonna go through the stud on the tie rod and line it up with the closest slot on the slotted nut. When you do that, you need to continue tightening. If it doesn't line up, tighten it just a little bit more until it does. Do not loosen it. Let's go ahead and make sure you get that cotter pin in there. Super important. Now let's tighten up the jam nut. That's nice and snug. Perfect. Do the same on the other side of the vehicle.

Okay. We're cruising. Let's get the wheel back up on here. And of course, get all your lug nuts on and started. Let's go ahead and bottom out all the lug nuts. Okay. Now we're gonna do the same to the other side, and then we're gonna torque them to manufacturer's specifications. All right. Let's go ahead and torque the wheel in a crisscross pattern to 83-foot-pounds. Torqued.