New HD tie rods for my 62

After putting a Black Diamond lift on my CJ, I was having a lot of bump-steer with the stock steering. So I cut and modified the tie rods so the front spindles were linked solid together, and the center pivot went over to one side. That worked really well other than I had to do a full turn on the main link for alignment, so I just had to pick got it closer to what I wanted. Since it is mostly a trail Jeep, it wasn't much of an issue.

This is what the modified stock tie rods looked like:



The rod to the center pivot had to be bent since the stock tie rod joint didn't allow for enough articulation. Not perfect or ideal, but did work well for the trails.

That is, until the nut holding the tie rod on came off junked up the tie rod and spindle.

So, I re-did the steering the way I wanted to in the first place. I got some 5/8" heim joints, two regular, and two with the spacers for better articulation. Drilled out the holes in the stock components to 5/8", used 1 1/4" DOM .120" wall tubing and put it together with 5/8" grade 8 hardware.

This is how it turned out:



A little overkill for something without power steering, but I think it's going to work really well for me. I spent $60 on the heim joints, tubing was leftover that was laying around, but that wasn't too much, about $25 in the grade 8 hardware. Easily doable for under $100 and some time.

 

Those are some nice tie rods.

 

friggin beautiful

 

If you can get the tie rod out from under the knuckle, by sharing the same bolt as the drag link it’s going to wallow out the TRE mount hole on that side.
I’ve been running a Heim steering setup for several years, and it’s served me well, but I also swapped the passenger side knuckle for a two hole knuckle after mine wallowed out the TRE mount hole when it was setup just like yours.

 

I see we think alike.. Cool man, looks great!

Bubba

 

Went to Moab this weekend. Did Fins n' Things, and Steel Bender. No steering issues the whole weekend, worked great!

Now, the broken spring hanger, body welds coming undone, and bad brass float in the carb was another thing. haha

 

Good to know, I hope mine works as well, I still have not tested it. I have a long way to go to get the rest of the Jeep done..

Bubba

 

I'm thinking of fabbing up an "upper arm" from the top of the bolt on that side back to the top of the king pin to help strengthen that and reduced the chance of that happening, hearing that may make me go ahead and do that.