The guy said that I needed "inner tie rod ends" which confused me because I really only have OUTER tie rod ends that connect to my steering gear assembly.

I jacked one front wheel off of the ground and had a friend shake the wheel back and forth. From a safe distance, I got down on the ground and looked to see what was moving while my friend shook the wheel. The tie rod end SEEMED to move in perfect unison with the wheel assembly, which made me doubt that the tie rod end was bad. (I was expecting to see some slop there.)

What DID move back and forth (about 3/4 inch) was the shaft coming out of the end of the steering gear assembly that attaches to the tie rod end...IS THE MOVEMENT OF THIS SHAFT NORMAL OR SHOULD THE STEERING GEAR ASSEMBLY BE REPLACED?

Please help! I don't know what to do, and I certainly don't want to spend good money replacing something that isn't faulty!