Getting inner tie rod loose?

What kind of tool are you referring to? You will need a special socket that goes over a crow's foot wrench of the correct size to match the two flats on the tie rod's socket. You may have also read about a band crimping pliers for the accordion boot. Both of these tools should be available at an auto parts store that rents or borrows tools. In my city they make you buy the tools, then you get a full refund when you take them back. If you choose to keep them, you still return them, then they give you brand new ones.

Here's the information from the service manual on how to do this job, but I question the tools shown. The pliers will work well if you're doing this job with the steering gear out of the vehicle, but not if it's still installed, as we normally would do this procedure. That's where the special socket comes in. There's two different common sizes of this socket as shown in the fourth photo, but a lot of imports use an unusual design with just two flats, and they're only on the back of the assembly. For those, you need the tool shown in the fifth photo. You select the correct crow's foot wrench, place it over the flats, then slide on the tube / socket over the crow's foot. All of those tools are turned with a standard 1/2" ratchet.

Note that this procedure specifies removing the steering gear from the vehicle. That is a huge waste of time when we have to charge our customers by the hour. I would, however, still try to get an open-end wrench on the steering rack, as they show, to avoid putting rotational stress on that rack. You aren't likely to twist the rack, but often it's sliding back and forth on plastic or nylon supports. There's also internal adjustments to set the preload or free play on the rack. Those parts could be damaged from using excessive force to loosen the old tie rod end. Be sure to use a click-type torque wrench to tighten the new tie rod to 55 foot pounds. That is needed to prevent it from coming loose over time.

A very light coating of grease on the threads between the inner and outer tie rod ends is okay, but absolutely do not use anti-seize compound or penetrating oil. Anti-seize compound guarantees you'll never keep the lock not tight, then road forces will hammer away the threads until they separate leading to loss of steering control. Penetrating oil, especially Chrysler's "Rust Penetrant" and similar products opens the way up for moisture to follow it in over time. That will result in those parts rusting so tight within a year, a torch will be needed to loosen them up when they need to be adjusted during an alignment. The vehicle will need to be aligned after this service.

Sorry that I didn't see your reply sooner. The reason they want you to use the wrench is to hold the rack from twisting. There's no way you're going to twist it out of shape, but it's easier to say that than to describe damaging the plastic internal supports.

It has been standard practice for a long time to use those long special sockets, with no open-end wrench to hold the rack, and I've never heard of any damage occurring. Unless there's something I'm not aware of, this procedure should be no different than on all the other models I've done this on. Those sockets aren't horribly expensive if you have to buy one, but if you're never going to need it again, borrowing from an auto parts store makes more sense.

I was really surprised to see in the instructions from VW that they tell you to remove the steering gear from the car. We would never even consider doing it that way. Just getting the steering input shaft coupler disconnected can take more time and be more frustrating than using the special socket. That's the whole reason the aftermarket specialty tool suppliers like Mac, Matco, and Snapon developed the socket with the crow's foot wrenches. There used to be only four sizes of crow's foot wrenches that came with the tool when I bought mine. Now it looks like there's seven or eight all together.