I sold my car to my nephew awhile back and the trans started slipping in 2nd gear so he took it to a local rebuilder to have it rebuilt. I don't know how many f-body's the guy has worked on in the past but I am wondering if there would be any reason the guy would have had to remove any front suspension or tie rods? Why I am asking is the first drive after the rebuild my nephew was on his way home and as he got home felt the car steering funny and found a tie rod was no longer connected and just hanging there. It was missing the nut completely and from what he showed me in pictures the threads on the tie rod look fine. I had the car for about 12 years and never replaced the tie rods, the front struts were replaced about 10 years ago so it seems odd to me that after the trans was rebuilt now a nut would back off after 10 years at least for any suspension work being done so that is why I am wondering if the guy may have removed the tie rod for any reason and didn't torque the nut back down or if this is just a coincidence.

 

Its been years early 2000s since i removed and installed one in an fbody but I see no reason that would be needed that I can recall. I would have to go with coincidence IMO

 

Typically thats how you drop an engine and trans out of an Fbody with the front subframe. Shouldnt have needed to for just the transmission though.

 

Even if you drop the cradle, you don't mess with tie rods. They just come out with the rack and the struts/spindles.
No reason to mess with them

This sounds like a classic case of coincidence. Nothing more

"ever since you fixed my flat tire, the radio doesn't work!!"

 

Does it look like anything else on the front suspension has been messed with?

I did alignments/ suspension work all the time at my last job, and I've seen ALL KINDS of loose/ worn out suspension parts, straight off the road that had been driving around for awhile.

I HAVE seen an inner tie-rod come loose from the steering rack and come out, but the threads on both ends were beat to ****.

I'm not saying it can't happen, but it just seems really odd to me. If it had slowly been coming loose over time, I think you probably would have noticed sloppier and sloppier steering.