jd 4200 Unable to remove bent tie rod

[Mark from Maine]

I am trying to remove my bent tie rod from my year 2000 JD 4200 so that I can remove my leaking final drive unit and take it to the dealer for a seal replacement. I tried freeing up the ball joint from the final drive but when I attempt to lift the loosened ball joint out of its mounting hole the upward bend of the tie rod hits an area on the driveshaft and prevents lifting the ball joint out far enough to be free of its hole.

I loosened the nuts locking the ball joints to the tie rod ends thinking that would allow me to rotate the tie rod so that the bend would be pointing downward and allow me more range of lift to raise the ball joint out of its mounting hole in the final drive. I can slightly rotate the tie rod on one end as I assumed I would. But the other end seems to be frozen tight and is not allowing me to rotate the tie rod. I tried rotating it with a 24 inch pipe wrench and it will not budge. As the afternoon wore on I thought "oh heck, just cut the tie rod in two and buy a new one". Glad I did not, $600 for a new one with ball joints, did not see a listing for just the tie rod.

I ended the the work day by spraying liquid wrench on the frozen threads. I thought I would heat the frozen area with a propane torch tomorrow AM and try the pipe wrench again. I am open to your thoughts and ideas.

Thanks for your help,
Mark

 

[Sprinklerman]

Straighten it on the tractor maybe

 

[Midniteoyl]

Anyway to raise the tractor and let the rod end droop?

 

[Mark from Maine]

I don't think raising the tractor would do any good. The tie rod is not restricted by the tractor. The tie rod comes up against a section of the axle housing that protrudes back from the main section of the axle housing. The section that protrudes back provides an attachment point for one end of the hydraulic steering ram. The tie rod ends need to come up out of the final drive units, not droop down. I wish it could though. Even if I could get just one end free that would allow me to remove the final drive unit that is going to the shop.

Thanks for your thoughts,
mark