I've been trying to make my Cavalier MOT friendly over the last few days and now need to replace the tie rod ends. Vauxhall are obviously quite stupid and have not actually made any provisions in their design to allow them to be removed easily. The rod ends on the car are identical to the one shown below with the exception of a little rust and an immovable urge to remain part of the car. Has anyone experienced and overcome this foolhardiness? Any help greatly appreciated.
Rescued attachment cav_tie_rod_end_montage.gif

Take the traqck rod off the car , single bolt and spring clip at rack end , plenty of penetrating oil and probably heat will shift them .count the number of turns you unscrew end , make sure you free off the adjustor {the double ended bolt} in the track rod . When every thing is freed off reassemble counting number of turns, LIGHTLY nip up clamp bolts, repeat for other side in required. Get tracking set, should be able to centralize steering wheel by adjusting track rods when adfjusting tracking, Something like a supertracker is good for this but can be set on old optical gauges with a bit of patience. H.T.H. Rusty.

I tried to get that spring clip thingy off and it didn't like it. Is it just a matter of prying it off with a screwdriver?

Yes it hold a locking plate in place that locates over heads of bolts, if it breaks they are pennies from vauxhall or failing that a cable tie would do as a temporary measure

Ah, right. I don't recall a spring clip, it's the locking plate that I had a go at.

Ok, in the daylight there is a spring clip. Have both rods off and am about to get a lift to my garage so I can angle grind the little buggers off. I also managed to flatten a couple of the threads on the off-side rod, but I'll prolly just chop that bit off though.

Cheers for the help Rusty, much appreciated.
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Chris , if you haven't any way of heating them undo clamp bolts and lay the track rod end on a solid flat surface where the internal threads are. Give a good soaking in penetrating oil and hit the outside of the joint with a hammer rotating rod as you go. This will help to free off siezed joint. Repeat with adjuster, reassembly with plenty of oil it may help to keep it free but don't hold your breath. Best of luck

It's all done. clamped one and rotated it off with a deep soket and wobble bar, the other one took the full rath of the angle grinder. That'll show it.

Well done chris murder design.

ps did you free the other end of the adjuster rod as they will need to move to set your tracking

Graham

No, but I had thought about it. Seems it's now the problem of the unfortunate mechanic that's gotta set it. Sick of messing round with it this weekend, it's about time someone else did.

Only two more brake pipes to replace and it should pass the MOT.

[Edited on 28/3/05 by Chris_R]

My local Mot Centre charge an extra £20 a side on vauxhalls if they need to remove the arms to free them up when doing tracking.
Not very low-cost to me. IMHO

don't mean to be negative.

cheers Graham

I'll shop about a bit I think. There are at least two places within 1/2 a mile of my work, i'll try them first.