General Seicento Steering Rubber Gaiters

[CasLad]

Can someone please advise a novice mechanic how to remove (for replacement) the rubber gaiters on a Seicento 1.1 track rod? I have the Cinquecento Haynes manual but the entry for this does not appear to be relevant.
The only way to do it appears to be to loosen the nut shown in my picture, marked A. Is this correct? I am wary of doing this in case I need to re-set the tracking. Would I need to re-set the tracking? The gaiter appears to be too big to pass over the track rod end by removing nut B.
Thanks,
Andrew
PS, the oil on the A nut is where I've put Plusgas and grease in readiness for loosening it.

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi

Do you mean the Gaiter over the Steering racks ball joint?

If you dont move the nut far.. half a turn to release the TRE
Then wind off the TrackRodEnd.. using the flats on the trackrod

You should be able to measure from trackrod thread..back to nut

You can restore that figure once youve installed the gaiter and reinstalled the nut


Full time mechanics may have a 'Dodge' for passing it over the nut.. but why risk splitting it... Or shortening its life..

 

[CasLad]

Hi

Do you mean the Gaiter over the Steering racks ball joint?

If you dont move the nut far.. half a turn to release the TRE
Then wind off the TrackRodEnd.. using the flats on the trackrod

You should be able to measure from trackrod thread..back to nut

You can restore that figure once youve installed the gaiter and reinstalled the nut


Full time mechanics may have a 'Dodge' for passing it over the nut.. but why risk splitting it... Or shortening its life..

Thanks.
"Do you mean the Gaiter over the Steering racks ball joint?" Yes, I think so. It is the ball joint just out of picture further up the trackrod from the point marked A.

Would you please clarify this bit, and what you mean by 'flats' please?
"If you dont move the nut far.. half a turn to release the TRE
Then wind off the TrackRodEnd.. using the "flats" on the trackrod"
So, if I loosen the nut marked A, then the TrackRodEnd will wind off?
I understand about measuring the length of thread so I can screw it back on without re-tracking. Thanks

 

[CasLad]

So, I found the 'flats'. My track rod was very rusted and they were hard to see. I've also removed the locking nut and the track rod end, but can someone please help me with a couple of questions?
1. How is the best way to get the larger end of the rubber gaiter on the near/passenger side over the lip and in place on the steering rack? Is it even possible by one person? I've given up trying with screwdrivers, etc, from the wheel side and from the engine bay. Access from beneath doesn't seen realistic.
2. On the track rod end, the knuckle and bolt that affix to the wheel: I removed the nut easily without any special balljoint separator, and removed the track rod end. When I come to put it back on again, the nut won't tighten because the 'bolt' from the knuckle spins. Does this mean that there is something wrong with the track rod end? Also, it appears to be a standard (non-nyloc) nut. Is it best to use a nyloc nut and if so can someone please tell me what size and thread type of nut to buy|?
Thanks,
Andrew