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I read through grambo's How-To here:
viewtopic.php?t=9270

The links to his pics are broken. I asked him to please fix the links if he has time.

Before I tear into this, I want to have everything ready because I will only have a limited amount of time to complete the job. I have many questions. Sorry for the long post.

What have you guys used for clamps for the boots? It seems the old ones will be destroyed.

I know it's important to not put any rotational stress on the rack itself to prevent damage to the rack gear and pinion gear. I haven't taken mine apart yet, so another question is: How have you guys removed the inner tie rod end without rotating the rack? Is it exposed enough to put a wrench on it or something? (I have not removed the boots yet to know.)

I think that's about it for now.

Thanks for any suggestions, tips, and tricks.

Replacement boots should come with new crimp clamps.

Did you PM grambo, or just ask him in the How-To?

I would PM him if you didn't, just so it may be a bit more noticeable.

Get boots and clamps from the dealer? Where are you guys getting your Mopar branded parts?

Yeah, I PM'd grambo and asked in his How-To.

Thanks.

Grambo is very rarely around these days, not to mention the fact that he probably doesn't remember much about his Neon, since he sold it like 4 years ago.

If you're talking about the grease boots, any quality new tie-rod end will come with new ones. My Moog tie rod end's boots just sit in and aren't held in by anything other than the connection between the ball joint and the knuckle. Only "lifetime" style boots, like the OEM ones, require clamps, because they are not designed to vent grease (thus they are not meant to be greased periodically). Aftermarket units are generally greasable and have a boot that free floats, since they're meant to allow grease to escape. Over-greasing a sealed lifetime unit can damage the boot, so it's not a good idea.

The inner tie rod has a groove with two flats on it, so that you can use a wrench to prevent it from spinning when breaking the jam nut loose at the tie rod end. You might also need to use it to remove the tie rod end itself if it's rusty and/or stuck.

Assuming the car isn't a rust bucket and the tie rod ends aren't extremely old, you should be able to swap them in about an hour, start to finish (both sides). If you're not very mechanically inclined, you might take 2.

Be sure to try to get the new tie rod ends as close to the old ones geometrically to keep the alignment decent. Have it aligned ASAP when you're finished.

do it up. tie rods arent too bad of a fix.count ur turns though

Are we talking outer tie rod ends? You break loose a jam nut, untwist the old one, twist on the new one, tighten the jam nut and go get an alignment. Took about 20 minutes to do both sides.

Thanks for the info on grambo.

I was referring to both but, more specifically, the inners....the dust boots on the inner tie rod that attach to the rack.

I'm gonna inspect under the thing today. It's got 115k hard driven miles....probably needs a rack too.

Steering gears are usually "non serviceable" items, not sure if the boots are sold separately.

To the OP: sounds like you're thinking you have to replace the entire tie rod assembly. You don't. The outer tie rod threads into the inner, so you don't need to worry about the inner (or the inner dust boot) unless it has play where it goes into the steering rack.

Of course, if it's the inner tie rod that's bad, that's a different story.

It's definitely both outers and inners. The outers are completely shot. I think the rack is shot too....I was originally hoping to just do the tie rod ends (inner tie rod with end, and outer end).

The inner tie rods are difficult to remove (they're loctited like mofo's), at least in my experience with 1st gens -- though I never had the proper removal tool (a 16" crescent wrench worked for me ). Autozone sells them, and I think they rent the tool too; see here.

One too many HTTP's in the link

go to autozone and borrow an inner tie rod tool its a long pipe with two gprotruding peices at the end cut the boot straps and take out tie rod then put new one in opposite u pulled out the boot and just use zip tie it works wonderfully

Fixed the link.