Heim joint/ball joint

I bought a new M.O.R.E. steering kit for short money from a guy that lost interest in his project. The kit includes a 1” OD x .218 wall tie rod and drag link along with heim joints.

Before I enlarge the holes on the knuckles I was wondering how well the exposed heim joints would hold up in the mud, sand and water compared to a ball joint w/rubber boot.

From what I’ve read the rod ends are Teflon and Kevlar lined and are self lubricating but I have no first hand experience with them. I’m running 33x12.5 tires

Your thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.

 

I have run a simular set up for the past year and they have help up well. One bit of advice. Never lubricate the heim. It will work to draw dirt and debrise into the joint and cause premature wear. They will get loose over time and will have to be replaced just like a normal TRE. I have not had to replace any of mine yet and they are still tight. I am running this set up with 35X12.5 MTRs.

 

I have a small one in my clutch linkage, it has been in there for about 4 years the rain and road salt play havoc on it, it will need to be replaced soon. IMHO stick with TREs were you may encounter mud,sand and road salt.

 

I'm using heims, but if I had it to do over, I probably wouldn't do it again. They will start to get loose after a year or so. TRE's won't. Also, heims are designed to be sandwiched between brackets of some kind. Not the way most steering knuckles are set up. Once you drill out the knuckles you are commited to the heims and there's no going back. Unless you want to buy new knuckles.

 

Thanks for replying.

Since I bought the steering kit from the guy he hasn’t been able to sell the front axle with the drilled out knuckles….I may be getting that for short money as well.

 

Sweet!

 

There you go. Wait and see what happens with that axle before drilling out your knuckles. Then if you can get it on the cheap, you can swap knuckles instead of drilling yours.
I’m like Posimoto, I’ve been running a heim joint steering for a couple years but if I had to do it over again I’d opt for the tie rod flip with standard, or even 1 ton, TRE’s.
Thing is, that taper is in the knuckle steering arm for a reason. If you drill the taper out, you’re steering knuckle hole will wallow out and add to the loose steering feel, plus make it a scary setup.

 

I would also try and run TRE's instead of Heims. I had to run a Heim on my pitman arm for a while, and as mentioned, it was always loose. I also wouldn't recommend heims if your driving this Jeep on the street. I redid all my steering with heavy wall DOM and 3/4" shank TREs and love it.

 

be careful of the plastic/teflon lined joints. they reduce noise but significantly increase wear. from my Rally experience Hiem joints are very heavy maintainance.