Tie rod jam nut trouble

[steve91tt]

I am trying to adjust the toe on the front end of my 1971 240Z but I am having no luck loosening the jam nuts that keep the tension between the tie rod ends and the steering rack. I have tried penetrating oil and a propane torch. I can't seem to get either side to budge. I'm pretty sure the driver's side has reverse thread and passenger side is normal. Other than that is there anything I am missing that is keeping me from getting this nut loose?

Here is a picture of my problem nut from the passenger side...

[olzed]

You may be turning the jamb nuts the wrong way. Its not hard to become confused when under the car.

The right side has a conventional right hand thread.The left side or your drivers side has a left hand thread.

You may be able to loosen them. Place a heavy block of steel e.g. an axe head or a large hammer behind

the area adjacant to the jamb nut, then give a few good blows with another hammer. Then give the nut a

couple of blows in a similar fashion. Don't hit withought a weight behind the area, as you may do some

damage to the rack.

Edited October 11, 2011 by olzed

[Zed Head]

I have used vise-grips on the body of the threaded cast steel and clamped them so that they rotated up against the cross member when I used my very large long-handled adjustable wrench to loosen the nut. I didn't want to put the torque on the ball joint. They can get pretty tight, even when I just give them a firm tighten, they have always been hard to get loose the next time around (I messed around with toe settings for a while, long enough to prematurely wear out a set of tires - zero is a good number).

You're right, one thread is lefty. You can eye-ball it and tell which one, and which way is off.

[steve91tt]

My friend has a 15" adjustable that I will try with your vice grip suggestion. Thanks for the input!

[FastWoman]

Supposedly the home-brew acetone/ATF mixture is the best performing stuff, by far. I once saw some controlled test results comparing various penetrating oils and the home-brew stuff thrown in just for laughs.

You might try whacking the end of a long wrench with a big rubber mallet. You can get quite a lot of torque that way.

[John Coffey]

McMaster-Carr part number 3843A15.

[steve91tt]

The 15" wrench and vice grip worked great! Thanks for the nut buster suggestion John. I'll save that for the next one.