Tie rod end grease boot fragility

["Grimsrud, Knut S" <knut.s.grimsrud@xxxx>]

I just replaced the steering rack on my '83 (130K miles) with a refurbished
unit from DMC. The new rack went in relatively painlessly and had the
desired result in taking the slop out of the steering (I'll include a
complete installation writeup in the next newsletter).

I noticed what seems to be a common problem that I'm hoping to get some help
with. Both the tie rod end grease boots on the old rack I removed were
split. Before installing my new rack, I moistened the new tie rod end boots
a bit in order to resure as much flexibility as I could with them, but when
I installed the new rack one of the new boots split on installation when the
tie rod end was tightened up. The tie rod end grease boots I have are the
beige transparent variety.

What is the solution to avoid splitting the tie rod end grease boots? Is
this a common problem with the tie rod ends and is it caused by the crease
boots becoming brittle over time?

Knut