It was quite common on the older models like my 1450. I bought new tie-rod ends and then made a temporary repair on the bad ones by greasing them and then taking a center punch and dimpling the metal all around the ball. I saved the repaired ones for emergency use when one failed again. My 3235 has much heftier ends and hasn't had a problem for the 8 years I've owned it (amazingly still has the factory battery also).