Maintaining alignment after Tie Rod replacement

[Kev]

Good afternoon / morning / evening,

I am soon to be replacing both Tie Rods on my 2004 VW Golf.

My nearest chassis alignment centre is 100 miles away, so I’d like to somehow get the toe back to it’s original setting, or as close as possible, until I can get myself up there.

VW have since changed the design of the Tie Rods, so counting threads isn’t really an option.

I was just wondering if anyone has any successful tips & tricks for getting the alignment back again after changing major suspension components, without the use of special tools?

TIA

Topic

[Dave]

This is an old trick I learned

Run a string (red line) from the backside of the front tire around the middle of front of the tire to the backside of the rear tire around the middle of the rear tire. Make sure you level the steering wheel before this. Then the string should tight and touch all 4 sidewalls of the two tires, do the same for the other side of the car. Then compare both sides they should be the same. While this is a redneck way of aligning the car it will work until you get to a shop to have a real alignment done.

Attachments:

• drawing.png

[college man]

The only other thing you could do is count the removal
turns. I know its far But I would get an alignment. You
can’t add rubber back to the tires once they wear.

[Kev]

Thanks guys

In the end I measured the length of the old tie rods and it’s not too far out.

I did the front strut top mounts whilst I was there and I messed that right up! All OEM parts and assembled properly, but something isn’t right, judging by the clunking noises.

I will indeed nurse it up to the shop and get them to have a look at the top mounts and do the alignment. I think I’ll watch Eric’s “Knowing when to quit” video again 😉

[Tom]

Maybe it is just me, but I would tear those top mounts apart again, and see if I couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong.

Mate, you never learn anything by doing it right, you learn by doing it wrong, then figuring it out. Took me three trips to the alignment shop, and hours spent on the internet to figure out that I had my front upper control arms on the wrong sides of the car, giving me 5 degrees of screwed up Caster on both sides of the car, but I eventually got it, and I will spot that problem in about half a second if I ever encounter it again.

[Kev]

I’ve had it up in the air since and there is absolutely no slack in anything. Not that I can feel at least, but obviously the loads are significantly higher when it’s back on the floor.

It’s only on one side. It’s a jolt / clonk that I can hear and feel. Like metal on metal.

I don’t get it. I’ve done top mounts on MK3 Golfs at least a dozen times and never had a problem, but the first time I’ve attempted it on a MK4 Golf, it goes bad! And they’re the same parts!

On the MK4 Golf, the damper slides into the hub carrier and is secured with a pinch bolt. Even with a special tool to pry open the bearing carrier hole, quite a lot of force is required to break the damper free (due to corrosion), which usually means whacking the carrier with a hammer. The only thing I can think of is I may have damaged something by doing that. A lower BJ or wheel bearing perhaps. It’s standard practice though and I’d be extremely unlucky if that’s the case!

Thanks for the words of encouragement but I’ll get my mechanic to tear it down at the shop next week as it’s a not a pleasant job to be honest. I also don’t like floor jacks as I have it in my mind twisting the body shell regularly can’t be good for it? It’s booked in for it’s annual test on the same day, so we’ll kill 2 or 3 birds with the same stone.

It is drivable in meantime, thankfully, so I didn’t balls it up too badly :blush:

[Kev]

I took your advice Tom and stripped it all down again.

Every day is a school day and the lesson I learned today was: never blindly trust the new parts to be correct!

The problem seemed to stem from these parts. Rubber mount, bearing and the securing nut.

[IMG]http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x2/kevhaywire/Img_0004_zps598f6a39.jpg[/IMG]

VW in their infinite wisdom decided to alter the nut and the rubber mounting ever so slightly.

I would never have seen this difference if I didn’t refit the old parts again out of curiosity.

Old nut on the left. Revised part on the right.

[IMG]http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x2/kevhaywire/Img_0002_zpsee9ef78e.jpg[/IMG]

So I ended up fitting new bearings, but reusing the old rubber mount and nut. Not ideal but it buys me some time until I can figure this one.

So it drives a million times better, but unfortunately I got a double whammy. I noticed some lateral play in the damper rod, so the clunk is still there on turns when the damper is loaded up, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was.

Time for new dampers I guess. $400 each from VW :unsure:

[EricTheCarGuy]

That sounds like quite an ordeal. Thanks for keeping us up to date. As to your original question I address that problem in my PS rack replacement videos.

[Kev]

Thanks Eric. I watched that video last night, and also your Cavalier one for good measure, but unfortunately VW have since redesigned the TREs, so thread counting is no longer an option. Measuring the length of the entire tie rod was the only thing I could do and it’s close enough to drive to a shop without shredding the tyres.

An ordeal indeed, but you can’t buy experience like this. It keeps the knowledge pool topped up.

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”SoilPack” post=73823]Thanks Eric. I watched that video last night, and also your Cavalier one for good measure, but unfortunately VW have since redesigned the TREs, so thread counting is no longer an option. Measuring the length of the entire tie rod was the only thing I could do and it’s close enough to drive to a shop without shredding the tyres.

An ordeal indeed, but you can’t buy experience like this. It keeps the knowledge pool topped up.[/quote]

Thanks for the update and for that bit of information. I learn something new every day.

[Author]

Replies