Tie rods

[bund]

Hey guys, I was wondering how you can tell if its your inner or outer tie rod that needs replacing?

[Rob@WretchedMS]

Grab the tire at 3 and 9 with it jacked up, and shake it back and forth, (best to have someone do this for you, and look and feel the socket for the tie rod,

Typically you can see the outer, but sometimes you can't
Inners you can't really see, you have to stick your thumb in to the bellows boot and feel for the end of the rod where it goes in to the socket. see if you have play with the tire being 'wiggled'

[joey]

Here is the info I learned from my alignment shop.

Outer tie rods - When getting your front end aligned, the toe settings will keep moving/changing if you have bad outer tie rods. It is difficult to do a proper toe alignment with bad tie rods.


Inner tie rods - With front end on jacks, have another person hold the wheel in the 3 & 9 O'Clock position and jiggle each wheel.
While the wheel is being jiggled, you should grab the inner tie rod and feel for metal banging/clunking coming from inside the bellows. It is very obvious if there is any clunking from the inner tie rods.

[Inferno07]

I just did outer tierods on my co-workers wife's 01 Caravan this weekend.. When he went to get it lined up the toe would change as they made adjustments. They quoted him $150.00 per side... $86.00 for two of the best MOOG outers and 45 minutes of my time and they were el-done-O... Took it back to get it lined up and I was off less than half a degree

I have never changed inners but just about every mopar made in this decade has ball joint and outer tie rod issues!