just wondering if its easy, looks to me to just remove the bolt/nut and unscrew it from the rod. my car goes in to satan tomorrow to see if the ball joints (recalled already) are making the creaking noise when I turn, but i bet its gonna be tie rod ends and im not paying them to put em on. do i need any special tools or will my socket set and hammer do the trick.

Crack the nut on the tie rod first. Then remove the cotter pin from the castle nut on the spindle. Run the nut out until the top edge is flush with the top of the stud, and then whack it a few times with a big hammer (hit it flat and square). Once the stud drops down, unscrew the castle nut the rest of the way off then you can unscrew the tie rod end from the tie rod(steering rack). If you count how many turns it takes to unscrew the tie rod end, screw the new one in the same number of turns. This will get the toe set close enough to drive to an alignment shop. That's all there is to it!

thank you very much