1997 Ford Expedition Origintation of tie rods sleeve

The right and left outer tie rod ends are different part numbers but they appear to be the same length. Without seeing the vehicle, I would have to assume the right one has a backwards thread. Due to the sleeve design used, you know one tie rod end on each side has to have a reverse thread. Compare the length and thread direction on the new part to the old one.

On some vehicles once you join the inner and outer ends with the sleeve, the entire assembly can be installed turned around. It can work just fine like that until it comes to ordering a replacement part. That's when you can get the wrong part if you're not standing in the auto parts store with the old part in your hand to match to the new one.

A wrench indent can be on either end. The manufacturer doesn't necessarily look at which end they're putting it on. All they care about is it's there someplace. Some put them on both ends too.

The bottom line is you should be able to look at the threads and see which ones are reversed threads.

Dandy. Unless an alignment specialist works at a dealership where he sees the same models over and over, he will not have the threads memorized, so he has to just turn the sleeve to see if he went the right way or the wrong way. To add to the confusion, on a lot of older cars, once you had the inner, outer, and sleeve bolted together, that entire assembly could be installed either way, and in fact they came that way from the factory. You never knew which way to turn the sleeve, and even looking at the threads could leave you confused. You just had to try it one way to see if you guessed right. To compound the confusion, if you went to an auto parts store to buy a replacement "inner", for example, you had a good chance of coming home with a part with the wrong thread.

Happy to hear your project is handled.