Tie rod ends and balljoints?

[Tabcon]

I recently installed a pair of ball joints I purchased from Moss and I'm not too happy with them. The problem being that as soon as you put any pressure on the ball joints, the rubber boot comes loose from the ball joint. I don't even have to extend the ball joint shaft to it's max before the boots just pop right off. The machining looks a bit rough also. I suspect China or most like India as the country of origin since there are no identifying marks on the whatsoever. I've ordered a new pair of QH ball joints and hopefully these will have a little more quality. I'm afraid that the same situation may exist for the tie rod ends and I was wondering if I could use a quality pair of self lubricating rod ends by someone like Aurora or QA1. I don't have an old pair of tie rod ends to look at so I don't know what the shaft on the tie rod end looks like. Does the shaft have to have a specific pitch to fit into the steering link or would a snug fitting rod end with a threaded shaft work?

 

[BuggerAll]

If you bore out the taper in the steering arm to accept a bolt (shank part only, threaded section should not contact steering arm) you can use a rod end and washers or spacers to adjust up and down as desired, this is one of the methods used to adjust for bump steer.

 

[billspohn]

Yup, that's the way I do it on the Twin Cam.

Be aware that you end up using a BIG bolt, that you need to use good Heim joints - get the ones with grease nipples and give them a squirt before every race.

I like to use a ginormous Nyloc nut AND to crossdrill and pin just above that nut (belt and suspenders type).

I suppose you could also machine up a straight shaft with the correct taper on the end and nut the Heim on top, but I've never bothered to try that.

 

[Tabcon]

I found what I think will work very well from a company named Howe Racing Enterprises. The only hickup is that it has a 5/8" rod end bolt whereas the TR4 steering rack is 1/2" so I'm fabricating a reducer from 3/4" hexagonal aluminum bar. One end will be 5/8" the other 1/2". Now I just need a drill press...lol.

The cool thing about these tie rod ends is that the bump steer is very easily adjustable and all you have to do is drill out your steering links to make the hole 5/8". The tie rods have zerk fittings and require no dust boots.