Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing track rod end disconnection

What is the recommended method of separating the track rod end from the stub axle on steering box cars (eg a 1969 4/4)?

thanks

Officially there is a tool often used in garages, eBay 20mm - 40mm BALL JOINT SPLITTER SCISSOR SEPERATOR SEPARATOR TIE ROD ENDS for examples for a few pounds. This is a safe and well used tool however most mechanics use the following method (too lazy to go fetch the tool). Undo the nylock nut or castleated nut, leave it half way on the thread to protect the thread end. With a medium sized hammer give the arm, NOT THE TRACK ROD END, a sharp rap with the hammer. The point to note it's not so much how hard you hit it more the sharpness of the rap to break the taper, hitting it hard will not shock break the taper, catching it right will. Purists will tell you to use a ball joint seperator and they are correct but have a look on the end of the steering arm ends fo a flat area to see what's been done in the past, my money is on a hammer blow. I have the tool in my toolbox but admit to using the hammer method almost exclusively.

That's the way I have always done it too, if you use a fork separator there is a good chance of damaging the boot. Not a problem if you're fitting new track rod ends but a bit of a B. If you're not.

Absolutely Nick, the scissor one is a little more gentle on the boot but not always, the hammer in wedges should be thrown in the scrap as they do a lot of damage, as you say not an issue of your changing the boot or joint, years ago you could buy boots but not so easy to find today.

As above but also worth running the nut up to just clear the nyloc bit or you can find it tricky to remove with the pin spinning round and round.

Yep, hit it with a hammer, I took steering swivels off last week.

I will be re-bushing and reaming next week.

(Mind you, You need to know what your doing, not hard enough and you are
wasting your time, hit it hard enough and miss and you bend the threaded
part, not for the faint hearted)

You might get enough of a shock if you use a drift but it gets fiddley.

Jon the Chief

I had to change the boots on my previous car -4/4 1993 with steering box and scissor type rods- before taking it for MOT.
I bought them off eBay for next to nothing, taking care to buy the correct size .
Luckily I have a splitter to separate the joints. I flushed them with excess grease as part of the process to make sure any grit was removed, they were all ok though and none needed replacing. Made me think what a garage would have done....probable replaced the joints completely!
So....do a search on eBay under "ball joint rubber boot" or similar.
When you buy it's best to get enough to change them all, the only fiddled bit is getting the spring back over the boot that holds it in place...your fingers get greasy!
I slid the springs up over the casing of the joint and carefully levered them back down after starting them off in the groove. Finally greasing them up , you feel the grease inside them as you pump and see the boot expand.
Nearly forgot, I used new nuts to refit them.

wow, thanks for the comprehensive responses...!

This type worked for me on a 1972 car:

From Laser tools

+1 exactly what I used on a '76 car (the lever types work equally well).