Ultra Heavy Duty Tie Rod

[ZedMikey]

Haha! Yeah... it'll be a heavy tie rod, for sure. I've been slacking on my gym visits the past month... this will make up for it.

You are right on the money for my strategy on the nuts, Greg. They'll just be cut from the same stock as the tie rod, and have flats milled into them for a 1-3/8" wrench. I just can't find 1"-18 nuts anywhere, let alone LH jam nuts!

I have no plans to heat treat the rod... but that can always be done after the fact! I'll probably just paint it and throw it on the truck. I think the cost of having it heat treated will outweigh the benefits, since I can't do it myself (if only I had an oven that went to 1500 degrees F!).

 

[Thierry]

let me know what size tap you are going to need as I have a large selection of left hand taps and dies sitting in my shed, I am in New Zealand on vacation right now, in the land of every other car or truck is diesel, I love it with the great variety of different cars and trucks that are diesel.

I will be back after the 26th December



Thierry

 

[PToombs]

Greg, I knew you had to remove one end to adjust, I'm just too cheap to buy anything more than I have to.



What's single point threading?

 

[JLEONARD]

What's single point threading?

A method of making threads where you use a standard lathe tool ( one with a "single point") and program the lathe to cut the threads. This lets you cut threads without buying any special tools.



Another way to cut threads would be to use a tap or a threading die and that's what most people are familiar with.



Threads can also be "milled". We do a lot of that here where I work.



Or they could be rolled or "formed" by use a special tool or tap that pushes material to form the threads.



There are pluses and minuses for each method. We won't get into that here.

 

[GHarman]

Program???

:-laf. JLEONARD,(program the lathe) you must be fortunate enough to have access to CNC equipment and the programming skills, to boot!.

Pete, He is right, of course, but ifn you dont have a $150,000 CNC lathe in yer garage, just an old manual unit, you gotta switch gears in the headstock and engage halfnuts on the apron that engage the leadscrew in a hand/eye coordinated dance that will leave ya breathless, especially threading up to a shoulder:-lafOo. . Greg

 

[JLEONARD]

OK Greg... yes I still remember the manual lathes with the lead screw and the handcranks. Wish I could forget. LOL

I'm just so used to the shop here and the small machine shops in the area that have CNCs. Can't remember the last time I saw anyone actually doing it manually...

making screw threads that is. :-laf

 

[PToombs]

I heard of them being "rolled" before, never heard of single point. Learn something new every day here.

Thanks guys!

 

[ZedMikey]

I dropped this for a while... was worrying more about finding a new job than fixing the steering in my truck.

Well, I've picked it back up. I'll hopefully get a quote this week.

 

[ZedMikey]

So, my machinist buddy has been a little backlogged... he just ordered my material, though. Hopefully, I'll have my completed rod in hand this weekend for installation. Once I have it fit checked and all that jazz, I'll post a quote on here for you guys that showed interest.

 

[ZedMikey]

So, I have the new tie rod on hand now. I had to mill the flats myself, though. My buddy's mill is a big, beefy CNC machine, but it has an enclosed workspace that is too small to maneuver the end of a 4' tie rod under the spindle. Fortunately, I have access to a small manual mill that worked perfectly for this. I'm going to throw some paint on it before I install it this weekend.

30 pounds of 4340 goodness! I'll snap some pics before I put it on the truck... most importantly, a comparison of the stock tie rod to this one. Hehe...

 

[ZedMikey]

Oh, and for those that expressed interest in having one made... they aren't cheap. I could probably find a cheaper source for the steel, but I paid $170 or so just for the material, shipped. The price of 4340 has definitely gone up over the past few years. There are cheaper steels that could be used, but they aren't that much better than mild steel... go big or go home.

So, if anybody is still interested in a tie rod that, complete end-to-end, will probably run over $400... just let me know. I still never got an actual quote from him, but I can hound him about it.

 

[JLEONARD]

Seems high but that IS a good material choice IMHO. I used to have a lot of stuff made out of 4340 prehard. Everything ended up very durable.

 

[ZedMikey]

I have had the tie rod in my truck for a few weeks now. It made a huge difference. Of course, now I'm noticing the slop in some of the other components in my steering... namely the drag link. As soon as I can afford to drop the coin on that Skyjacker kit, I'll lift my truck and convert it to crossover with a beefy drag link (not as beefy as the tie rod, though).

I have pics, but I need to pull them off the camera before I can post them up.

Anybody have a use for a stock tie rod center section? The rod itself is fine, it's just the ends that were shot. Come pick it up or pay for shipping, and it is yours...

 

[ZedMikey]

Seems high but that IS a good material choice IMHO. I used to have a lot of stuff made out of 4340 prehard. Everything ended up very durable.

I think the cost was high because they sell custom lengths and small quantities versus full sticks and high volume... still worth it!