Took my '99 Concorde in for a 4-wheel alignment today after completing some suspension maintenance. The tech brought me a broken grip piece from the tie rod (toe adjuster) sleeve and said he couldn't set the toe in until that part was replaced (though I had never personally messed with it, I had noticed that that piece looked awfully rough, with one of the two grip tabs already missing, so no surprise when the tech reported the problem to me).
I was happey to find a replacement at NAPA - much better design than the OEM sleeve. OEM is a knurled hollow sleeve that forces the tech to use either channel locks or vice grips to make the adjustment - no wonder it fell apart after 4 years of alignments. The aftermarket replacement is also a hollow sleeve as dictated by the design, but has a nice big hex grip instead of the knurls - infinitely more robust. Chrysler could learn a thing or two from some of these aftermarket designs (I know - it might cost a couple of cents more to do it right, then they couldn't compete in the marketplace). 8^)
Just thought I'd pass that along in case any of you have the sleeve come apart on you. I plan on replacing both right and left sleeves tomorrow (and taking in Monday to finish the alignment), even though only one is broken - that will eliminate such surprises on future alignments and make the job easier for the techs.
Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")