Help! Removing the blooming track rod locking nut.

[AliK]

Wise ones, I humbly throw myself at your mercy!

I cannot for love, money or foul language get the nut on the passenger side tie rod to let go.

I have tried self penetrating oil, a fair bit of heat (which makes me nervous about cooking the rack), attempts at turning it both ways, but nothing.

I am millimetres from cutting it off with a small disc cutter but before I do, what advice / experiences are you able to offer me please?

Is the left side supposed to be a reverse thread? I read somewhere that on the early S30s the threads were handed but on the later cars the threads were normal on both sides.

Please help my car get off the driveway this year!! [emoji15]

 

[uk66fastback]

It is handed for sure from memory. I forget which is which though. Do you have one off? If so, look at the nut and you can see whether it is a LH or RH thread ...

I too had trouble and ended up cutting it off.

Edit: A spot of googling suggests the driver's side on a LHD car is a LH thread ... so passenger side for you ... !

 

[AliK]

It is handed for sure from memory. I forget which is which though. Do you have one off? If so, look at the nut and you can see whether it is a LH or RH thread ...

I too had trouble and ended up cutting it off.

Edit: A spot of googling suggests the driver's side on a LHD car is a LH thread ... so passenger side for you ... !

Thank you sir! I did the same but I couldn’t figure out if that was for early cars or all cars. Will try again with heat later. The driver’s side was definitely normal thread, i.e. it went towards the rack when turned clockwise.

 

[status]

One of them is the opposite thread but can’t remember wot side it’s been a long time since I done mine,I’ll be redoing this this summer hopefully

 

[Mark N]

I had a RH and LH combination on my 260Z.
I could easily tell, which was which, by cleaning up the exposed threads with a wire brush to see how they went into the locking nut.
The same could be done at the other end of the thread where the cut ends,

 

[status]

That sounds about right Mark and that’s wot I done,I remember now but it was about 25 years ago so In the process of replacing a few things ie got a Steering rack to get reconditioned then going to do the whole lot at once

 

[Farmer42]

When I did mine, I removed the whole end from the rack including the inner tie rod and put it in the vice. It was much easier off the car and meant that I could get much better leverage on the nut which eventually cracked with heat and a couple of bounces of my weight on the end of a long bar.

The LH side was a LH thread on mine.

 

[AliK]

When I did mine, I removed the whole end from the rack including the inner tie rod and put it in the vice. It was much easier off the car and meant that I could get much better leverage on the nut which eventually cracked with heat and a couple of bounces of my weight on the end of a long bar.

The LH side was a LH thread on mine.

That is a great idea, thank you for sharing. I definitely think a bit of heat and elbow grease is gonna do it. Just worried about the but getting abused. I am assuming any high tensile 12mm by 1.5 but will do?

 

[MaximG]

That is a great idea, thank you for sharing. I definitely think a bit of heat and elbow grease is gonna do it. Just worried about the but getting abused. I am assuming any high tensile 12mm by 1.5 but will do?

I think the nuts are a special slim nut.

 

[AliK]

I think the nuts are a special slim nut.

Thank you.

Any thoughts on the best place to source them please!!? I can find a tonne of bolt places on tinter but not totally sure what I’m looking for.

I suspect I will have rounded this poor but off by the time I get her moving.

 

[MaximG]

I got mine off eBay some time ago and was pointed in the right direction by Peter McDonald. Just looking at my purchase history it only goes back to 2018 so not far enough.

 

[MaximG]

I can find Half nuts on eBay but not LH thread. It might be worth picking one of them and giving them a ring. Spalding Fasteners might be able to help https://www.spaldingfasteners.co.uk/

 

[AliK]

Thank you again!


Storm in tea cup over! Once I determined the correct direction of rotation (left hand down) I gave it 30 secs with the map torch and a couple of lump hammer knocks - it came straight off and not too badly damaged either! [emoji16]