Trashed Tie Rod Ball Joint Boots - replace?

[Jay4200]

My L4200 has problems with it's balls. I bought the machine last winter with tie rod ball joint damage - and now that it is spring, it's time to fix it.

The tie rod ends show damage on both sides - one ball joint is completely blown (w/ ~1/8" of play), and the other three joints, while still solid, have their boots torn off and are packed with dirt.

The tie rod with the blown ball joint doesn't have replaceable ends, so I have to replace the whole thing. I ordered new tie rods for both sides - I figured that since the joints were operated with damaged boots for god-knows-how-long, I better play it safe and change them out. I hated dropping $130 to essentially replace two boots, but I didn't want to go through some kind of kludge effort just to have them fail a few months down the road. Was this prudent or stupid?

Since all 4 tie rod end boots are torn off, I can assume that they are extremely vulnerable by (bad) design. What's a good way to protect my recent investment?

Thanks - Jay

 

[CTyler]

If the other joints were still usable and in reasonable shape, I'd keep using them. If they are greasable then clean the zirks and grease the heck out of them so it creates a shield of grease. Possibly wrap some innertube around them with some RTV and tie wraps to make a boot.

If they were all a little sloppy anyway then I'd just replace them all in one shot.