bburris
04-01-2004, 03:24 AM
I've been working on and off for the last week or so to upgrade my steering (finally). I'd post a pic of how bad my old steering had gotten, but I threw most of it in the scrap bin and the old tre's got thrown across the yard when I got pissed one time.
I used the last of the 1.5" DOM I got from Chadnutz for the tie rod, with inserts from PolyPerformance. The inserts are for 1" ID tube, and are tapped for a 7/8" 18tpi shank. This means Chevy TRE's... The TREs are huge, so I had to have the knuckles reamed out by a local machine shop. I was trying to keep from spending money on tools, but I ended up buying both a RH and a LH 7/8" tap because the inserts drew in a little in the middle when I welded them into the tube. I used Chevy TREs because when flipped opposite, I was able to use the oddball looking one to fit my drag link TREs in to. You can sort of see this in the first pic, I'll try to get more later. The taper of this hole was correct for Wrangler TREs so there wasn't much work involved with the drag link. I used a YJ drag link as it was the correct length, then we sleeved it with some 1" sch 40 pipe so it wouldn't look so damned tiny next to the DOM. Maybe I can't beat this crap beyond use.
We made the tie rod and drag link, bolted my front axle back together, then I tried to cycle the steering. Go to full driver side and it taps the diff cover... no big deal, I just can't put my pretty new diff cover guard on now. I start to turn to the passenger side, and the steering wheel didn't make it a full turn. It hit the track bar bracket and all the other crap that's welded to the coil bucket. The options were modify the brackets, or fab new steering. The tie rod has given me enough problems, so I decided to hit the brackets with the sawzall. I cut crap off, then we made a new bracket to mount the track bar to. You can see it behind the tie rod - its the rustiest part on the pass. side. All that's left is to unbolt crap, paint it and get it back together, throw the tires back on and I'm ready for TCC.
I used the last of the 1.5" DOM I got from Chadnutz for the tie rod, with inserts from PolyPerformance. The inserts are for 1" ID tube, and are tapped for a 7/8" 18tpi shank. This means Chevy TRE's... The TREs are huge, so I had to have the knuckles reamed out by a local machine shop. I was trying to keep from spending money on tools, but I ended up buying both a RH and a LH 7/8" tap because the inserts drew in a little in the middle when I welded them into the tube. I used Chevy TREs because when flipped opposite, I was able to use the oddball looking one to fit my drag link TREs in to. You can sort of see this in the first pic, I'll try to get more later. The taper of this hole was correct for Wrangler TREs so there wasn't much work involved with the drag link. I used a YJ drag link as it was the correct length, then we sleeved it with some 1" sch 40 pipe so it wouldn't look so damned tiny next to the DOM. Maybe I can't beat this crap beyond use.
We made the tie rod and drag link, bolted my front axle back together, then I tried to cycle the steering. Go to full driver side and it taps the diff cover... no big deal, I just can't put my pretty new diff cover guard on now. I start to turn to the passenger side, and the steering wheel didn't make it a full turn. It hit the track bar bracket and all the other crap that's welded to the coil bucket. The options were modify the brackets, or fab new steering. The tie rod has given me enough problems, so I decided to hit the brackets with the sawzall. I cut crap off, then we made a new bracket to mount the track bar to. You can see it behind the tie rod - its the rustiest part on the pass. side. All that's left is to unbolt crap, paint it and get it back together, throw the tires back on and I'm ready for TCC.