Changing the steering rods on a Peugeot 206

First, check the parts you have. Here, the kit I bought (one for the right wheel, the other for the left wheel), has several elements that can be purchased separately. Indeed, this tutorial proposes the replacement of the steering ball joints AND the tie rods. But you can just use the steering ball joints.

So here we have for a kit: a steering ball joint, a tie rod (with the internal ball joint attached to it), a bellows for the tie rod, two metal collars to hold the bellows, a packet of grease for the inside of the bellows.

After these minor checks, I advise you to remove the protective cover, which will free up space for later, particularly when handling the bellows.

Another thing that will come later but that I present to you now: if you do not have metal collar pliers (to tighten the collars present in the kit), plastic collars will do the trick, provided you have collar pliers! (3rd photo)

Loosen the front wheels, then place the vehicle on jack stands.

Remove the wheels, and you can now locate the steering rods.

Since they are not protected, they are certainly in a bad state! A quick wire brush will allow you to have a clean support before starting the disassembly.

The ball joint must be well wedged, so before forcing it, a little dab of penetrating oil will make the task easier.

You can also water the other end of the steering ball joint, which is screwed into the tie rod (right next to the lock nut).

Next, a 16 wrench (or a 16 socket) will be useful to unscrew the upper nut of the steering ball joint.

I advise you to unscrew the nut COMPLETELY, before unscrewing the ball joint, because if you do it halfway, the screw will then turn WITH the nut, which will cause you a lot of trouble to finish unscrewing the nut.

After unscrewing the steering ball joint nut (which is still present in the photo!), you can unscrew the lock nut a little. A little bit, because this will allow you to unhook the steering ball joint (so unscrew by 1 cm for example).

Once the locknut is loosened, use a ball joint puller to free the ball joint.

You have to screw, screw, until... crack! the spacing of the ball joint remover allows you to release the ball joint from the wheel.

The ball joint puller has allowed you to forcefully release the steering ball joint from the wheel. You can now release it completely, by adjusting the orientation of the wheel a little.

You can choose to stop there to change only the steering ball joint, by unscrewing it from the tie rod. But, here, we will disassemble the assembly: Steering ball joint - Tie rod - Inner ball joint.

We will now remove the bellows which protects the inner ball joint and its connection with the rack.

In the 2nd photo, you can see a circlip that holds the bellows on the hub. It must be released with a flat screwdriver (by inserting the head into the small notch circled in red).

Once the circlip is loosened, you can pull on the bellows, it comes off by itself.

If you don't have a "link rod remover" or "claw pliers", a word of advice: give up! (and go buy the equipment immediately!).

In fact, you have to unscrew the internal ball joint, which connects the connecting rod and the rack. Since the ball joint is round (principle of a ball joint!), it has no "grip". Which means that a simple adjustable wrench is ineffective (it slips!). Especially since the ball joint must be a little tight on the shaft.

So equipped (here) with a claw wrench, you pinch very hard what you can grab of the ball joint, and loosen with all your strength!

The main difficulty here is access to the ball joint. You have very little space and are not necessarily at your hand. So I strongly advise you to use a tie rod remover. That said, I did it without!

Then, in order not to disrupt your geometry too much (which you will have to have done at the garage in any case), you need to measure the length of the assembly: steering ball joint screwed onto the tie rod. Adjust the length by screwing the steering ball joint more or less into the tie rod.

I advise you to put the lock nut to the length found. This way, when you remove the steering ball joint to pass the gaiter, you will still have a trace of the length to which the ball joint must be screwed. Otherwise, you can also count the number of turns that you screw into the tie rod.

On the new part, a small plastic cover protects the thread which will be screwed onto the rack.

Reverse operation, screw very tightly with the claw clamp.

Ideally, a tulip extractor allows you to extract or tighten this type of ball joint, and to be able to tighten it to the manufacturer's torque. Here, I just tightened very hard!

No thread lock on the thread, if any subsequent disassembly is necessary...

My replacement kit is quite complete, because in addition to a new bellows (rubber and not plastic please!), it also provides the grease that you need to put inside the bellows.

So distribute it well over the entire length of the bellows, especially on the widest side, where the inner ball joint will be.

Insert the boot around the tie rod (you should have removed the new tie rod end that you screwed in earlier when comparing parts).

Warning! The bellows are filled with grease! If you don't protect the end of the new tie rod (with a plastic bag for example), you will put grease everywhere! (and especially in the tapping where the new steering ball joint will be attached).

2 circlips are provided in the kit, but to be able to fix them correctly, you need to have special clamp pliers (which I don't have). On the other hand, I have electric clamps - Colson type - (and with pliers!) and this allowed me to tighten correctly, although it remains a delicate operation!

Indeed, for the collar that holds the bellows on the internal side, access is VERY limited. So I let you imagine the difficulty in putting it in position (well around the bellows, itself around the rack), and then passing the pliers to tighten the collar.

A very perilous operation, but once it's done, it won't move!

In the 3rd photo you can see the contents of the kit. There are two metal collars (circlips), the larger one goes on one side of the bellows (to hold it to the rack), the other smaller one on the other side, to hold the bellows to the connecting rod.

Screw the steering ball joint onto the tie rod up to the lock nut.

Place the ball joint screw in the wheel (adjust the orientation of the wheel to match the screw and the thread).

Screw in the ball joint bolt (16mm), then tighten the lock nut.

You can then do the same on the other side!

Once these steps are completed, you can put the wheels back on and tighten them!