Just spent a week fighting some badly rusted tie rod ends. Copious amounts of PB Blaster and heat were ineffective, so I ended up replacing the entire tie rod assembly. Schwaben makes an inner tie rod tool that worked surprisingly well - allows you to remove the inner tie rod without having the rack extended too far unsupported when breaking the torque to remove the tie rod. It also ratchets very well. In order to fit the tool, I needed to cut the tie rod in half. I had one bad tie rod end that was clunking pretty badly, glad I caught it, and ended up replacing both sides so that the wheel alignment should be pretty easy.

 

What did you use to cut the shaft ?

 

Looks like he used a reciprocating saw.

 

Yeah - cordless reciprocating saw with a metal blade, cuts pretty easy, the tie rod ends are just made from mild steel.