Tie Rod and Drag Link Armoring

[Wolf Fabrication]

Yeah, I'm a cheapskate when it comes to things I know I can on my own. My next project was armoring my tie rod and drag link. I decided on the armoring route versus buying new HD ones as I believe both are just as strong, yet I only spent $10 on materials to armor versus $200 to buy HD ones.

I used thick wall 1" standard pipe. It slides neatly over the stock rods with about 1/16" gap all around. This entire project was as simple as removing the rods, sliding the pipe over, then welding the pipe at the ends.

If anyone in the NoVa area needs to do this same project, I have plenty of pipe left over.

[Stmpede]

Looks good, I think I may do the same one of these days.

[ron]

Not bad, now the next point of failure is the tie rod ends. i welded L bracket to mine. i couldnt find that fancy pipe : )

[Wolf Fabrication]

Not bad, now the next point of failure is the tie rod ends.

Hmmm, I don't know about that. They are weak, but the threads extend about 3" into the link. Short of drilling and tapping for larger tie rod ends, I don't know what else to do. I guess wait until they break!

[airbornrover]

another easy trick to reinforce those bars is to slide square tubing with three holes drilled out oppisite to each other. then puddle weld it to the said rod.(terminology right?) one of a few tricks that i read in an old rover mag with a yellow background and a thick line of red at the top of the pages. tech section i think. anyhow just another variation on what you did and you would place welds at the end of the square tubing to seal it as well i believe as well.

[evilfij]

I did something similar on my series. I put pipe around it and drilled the pipe for grease fittings so it would spin on the bar (leave room for a wrench to get the TREs off).

[slorocco]

That's a pretty slick fix. I'm impressed. I spent quite a bit more on what i did for my series truck. But, then I was also relocating the steering stuff and had to build from scratch anyway. I used 1 1/2 inch 1/4" wall DOM tubing and welded in threaded ends, cost me about $110 or $120.

[ini88]

nice work Jonathan! have you ever thought about running heim joints to replace the ball joints? I know one of the guys on here did that.

[130Tdi]

what are those white shocks ?

[Wolf Fabrication]

Those are Pro-Comp ES9000's - I like them so far.

[DonFromWhitby]

Yeah, I'm a cheapskate when it comes to things I know I can on my own. My next project was armoring my tie rod and drag link. I decided on the armoring route versus buying new HD ones as I believe both are just as strong, yet I only spent $10 on materials to armor versus $200 to buy HD ones.

I used thick wall 1" standard pipe. It slides neatly over the stock rods with about 1/16" gap all around. This entire project was as simple as removing the rods, sliding the pipe over, then welding the pipe at the ends.

If anyone in the NoVa area needs to do this same project, I have plenty of pipe left over.I had a buddy do that to his, but he drilled a hole and tapped it for a grease nipple. He greases it regularlay after an after-trail wash-down to keep it from seizing to the inner rod.

[easy]

Nice! My brother and I are going to do this as well. We had some questions though, did you weld it with the tie rod ends threaded in? We were wondering if the threads could get deformed from the heat of the weld.

[cgalpin]

If anyone in the NoVa area needs to do this same project, I have plenty of pipe left over.
I think I'll take you up on a piece of that pipe as Janey could use a beefier drag link. Of course that means losing the QT diff guard which means I need a different diff guard. Maybe not :grin

[Red90]

I did this as well, earlier this year. I've caught hard a few times and they are still straight. $10 and an hour or too. Why do it any other way?

[cgalpin]

Well the ends are no stronger than stock, but probably no weaker than the TRE itself so good enough IMO.

Oh and why any other way? Well what if you have no welder or fab $kill$?

[easy]

Yeah, we were planning on just making our own rods out of thick walled DOM but we couldn't find the taps to cut the threads and then my brother (CBass) thought of just doing it this way. Red90, did you weld them with the Rod Ends threaded in?

[Wolf Fabrication]

I welded the pipe without one of the rod ends in and didn't have any distortion problems at all. I figure this is at least better than stock and an interim solution until thei break or beefier ones sourced.

Charles, I need to do my 110 tie rod and drag link here soon, but you are welcome to what's left.

[Red90]

Red90, did you weld them with the Rod Ends threaded in?

I left the rod ends out. A quick and light weld only. I put the weld in the thread area. No problems with the threads afterwards. I also welded a nut on (1"?) to make adjustments easy in the future.

You really could just leave the pipe loose on the tie rod if you don't have a welder or don't like the idea. It would be almost as strong...

[Red90]

A couple quick pictures.

[easy]

Nice, thanks for the info. I like the idea of the nut, that would come in handy.