I bought new inner and outer tie rods, got the rack off, and am now looking at my new parts, the rack, and the red Fiero shop manual. How do I remove the inner tie rods when they are staked to the rack? The manual shows using two wrenches - one to turn the tie rod (makes sense) and one on the rack shaft and it says to be sure to grab the teeth so as not to hurt the gear. I don't see any teeth though. The rack shaft sits too far into the rack housing for me to see any teeth. (I have attached a photo of what I am looking at.) I am guessing this probably means I need to disassemble the rack more to be able to see the teeth. But this is the missing instruction from the shop manual, so I was hoping someone here could fill me in. To the right of the inner tie rod in the photo is an aluminum tube that looks like it is built into the rack. I am guessing the part of the shaft where teeth are is buried inside this tube? Do I need to take the pinion piece off to slide the shaft left or right to get to the teeth? I assumed I didn't because of the stories I have read of people changing an inner tie rod without removing the rack from the car.

ps. This is my first post to PFF, but I can't tell you how many hundreds of messages I've read on here now trying to restore a 1984 Indy that I bought a few months ago.

You probably can't rotate the pinion gear far enough to get the teeth to show at that end of the rack housing so rotate it the other way until you see teeth protruding out the other end. Then grab use one wrench at either end of the rack. Just be careful not to mar the rounded portion of the rack since it's got to go through a bushing on the passenger side of the housing and if it's got a burr, you'll have a stiff spot later on.

Also, I've found that simply twisting the tie rod to break the staked portion isn't a good idea. You really should weaken the staked portion by grinding it with a small die grinder or "un-staking it" as best as possible with a screwdriver or a chisel before trying to turn it.

Your reply helped. I turned the pinion gear and saw the teeth part of the shaft materialize on the driver's side of the rack. It seems like, teeth or no teeth, there really is no way to remove the old tie rod without unstaking it before its turned. You say this can be done with a chisel or screwdriver? (probably hitting with a bfh?) is the goal to destroy the tie rod joint housing where it is staked? Or am I trying to hit the staked piece on the edge and hammer it outwards towards the outer tie rod to slide it off the shaft? (this latter way seems like it could damage the inner shaft)

You have to destroy the staked part of the old tie rod in order to be able to spin it off.

Thanks for your help. I got the old tie rods unstaked with my dremel and a metal cutting disc. I cut the staked parts out and the tie rods turned right off.