Iron rock offered (IRO ) XJ tie rod way too short ?

Has anyone else ran into a problem with a IRO solid tie rod being way too short ? If so , how what did you do next? trash it in the junk steel pile in your shop after they told you over the phone that its just fine...


Ordered an solid stock IRO tie road. thing only has around 1/2" of thread engagement. For my second rig, a mild built MJ, not the crazy built XJ....

88 MJ on 5" of lift. stock drag link and pitman arm. soon going down to 4" of lift.

Ive done XJ alignments for like 7 years and I've never seen a ZJ V8 tie rod, Currie, or custom ruffstuff, or even stock have so little thread engagement, and so much thread showing.

Anyone else run into this? the guy there at IRO gave me the run around over the phone said its good to 8" of lift- but at this rate there would be no thread engagement at like 7" of lift it would seem so I have no idea how they came up with 8" lift max. I would say with this tie rod stock height is the max.


the MJ is getting dropped down to around 4" of lift

toe in is dialed in and steering wheel is centered.

Dude at IRO said if I try to return it ill have to pay return shipping and discounted return value since its used now.
( if I knew it was going to suck this bad I would have just grabbed a ZJ v8 tie rod)

measures 35", but needs to be 36"-36.75"






In the pic above its less than 1/2" of thread engagement.
I messed with the drag link to get a hair more thread into the tie rod.

toe is about 1/16" in- its not like the thing is toed out 2" or something.

Got your old one you can measure for reference?

Sell it to recoup some cost. Or, maybe save it for when you go WJ steering and use for a drag link?
i just measured my ironman 4x4 fab tie rod and its about 38" wide. So, they must have given you a non-QC'd item. Tell them it is defective and you want a replacement.
My back yard is a jungle right meow, or I would go measure my stock tie rod for you. But, that woulds require putting shoes back on.
If anything ask them to measure and confirm their other tie rod's in stock. If they say it's the same, cut your loss.

Just a quick thought, IRO is a vendor on here meow IIRC. Contact them as well and see what they have to say.

I just measured a stock tie rod. It was right around 36.5". That's a bummer because I was going to order one of these.

I have a IRO tie rod in my garage waiting to go on my Jeep. Measures 35" end to end with 3" of thread depth at each end.

I have the IRO tie rod. No problem with it here, but I only have a 2 inch lift.

V69_XJ said:

I just measured a stock tie rod. It was right around 36.5". That's a bummer because I was going to order one of these.

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Consider ironman4x4fab With rod ends now it's only around 100$. I got mine before he offered TRE's, but got a killer deal on Moog rod ends on ebay. That was about 5 years ago meow.
It's solid 1.25 rod I believe, and it uses what are technically 3/4 ton rod ends. larger shank than stock and stock taper for plug n pray operation.
Really unfortunate about IRO. Their other stuff seems right, but I guess their replacement tie rod is no good for a decent amount of lift.

V69_XJ said:

I just measured a stock tie rod. It was right around 36.5". That's a bummer because I was going to order one of these.

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Yep thats what I have for stock.

MT Mike said:

I have a IRO tie rod in my garage waiting to go on my Jeep. Measures 35" end to end with 3" of thread depth at each end.

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Yep that 35" compared to the 36.5" of stock tie rod is kinda BS saying it would work up to 8".

Sounds like they were probably supposed to produce a bunch of 37" ones and someone accidentally made a bunch of 35" ones and they are stuck with the stock trying to push them on people.


I figure if anything go 1/2" longer than stock to 37", not a whole 1.5" shorter to 35". Its quite lame.

It might be ok at 1-2" of lift, even then it would still have a ton of thread showing with almost still very little thread engagement.

I am totally screwed over, he said I am better off selling it on a forum due to the return shipping costs and he would not give me a full refund since it has technically been used

- when I told him I only get 160-200$ for Currie systems used and I've been parting out and reselling XJ parts for around 8 years very consistently so I know the market very well - , I told him I would be lucky to get 20$ for his and more than likely just a 6 pack of beer now that I think about it.

and I don't have the heart to sell it to anyone who is using more than a stock lift since It would seem unethical.



I seriously regret wasting money on this thing since just looking at it , the solid stock does no good if I snap stock Tie rod Ends with little thread engagement. I regret not going to a box store and just buying the ZJ setup (long rod, short rod, adjuster)

if I really felt like doing it , I would have driven over to Ruffstuff and bought a steering kit there and go OTA with a RS trackball bracket, but I really wanted to keep this thing bolt on and cheap...

I wonder, is a drag link from a later model different than a RENIX drag link? Might be worth checking into.

MT Mike said:

I wonder, is a drag link from a later model different than a RENIX drag link? Might be worth checking into.

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Thats a very good point.

I have no clue.

MT Mike said:

I wonder, is a drag link from a later model different than a RENIX drag link? Might be worth checking into.

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blondejoncherokee said:

Thats a very good point.

I have no clue.

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No, drag link is the same for all years XJ, and I6 ZJ. V8 ZJ has incorrect angles and such to work on an XJ.

Jon, if you need something NOW, go to your parts store and get ZJ stuff. If you can wait, either get IM4x4fab or other tie rod that works. Or, just go OTK/WJ swap meow. Seems like you could use the IRO tie rod as a drag link for one-ton or WJ swap. But, nothing else other than a firepit smoker stick.

Rock auto shows RENIX drag link as DS1046. Shows 93-99 XJ drag link as DS1238. Shows V8 ZJ drag link as DS1310. Obviously there is some sort of difference between them, but what it is I do not know.

BTW Johnnie Walker, Super Troopers has been out for 13 years meow. Time to let it go.

I work at a Carquest, and the part listing for the XJ and I6 Zjare the same for drag link. May be different for certain manufacturers, but it's the same. And, you double posted without editing. So, you have no room to judge how I write here. So, you can stop laughing, right meow!

13 years of amazing. I still love super troopers!

Yup at 6.5 barely any thread engagement. I ordered a R & L hand jam nut and welded them to the end of the rod . That was the cheapest fix I had. Ontop of it being short, the left hand threads in the rod were tapped horribly and the TRE went in really tight.

Littlethunder92 said:

Yup at 6.5 barely any thread engagement. I ordered a R & L hand jam nut and welded them to the end of the rod . That was the cheapest fix I had. Ontop of it being short, the left hand threads in the rod were tapped horribly and the TRE went in really tight.

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Funny you say that about the left hand threads since i had the same issue as well. I had to put it in a vice and then use a pipe wrenh to install the tre. It was brand new and threaded into the stock tie rod with ease so i know it was this tie rods issue. Overall been a waste of time and money

blondejoncherokee said:

Funny you say that about the left hand threads since i had the same issue as well. I had to put it in a vice and then use a pipe wrenh to install the tre. It was brand new and threaded into the stock tie rod with ease so i know it was this tie rods issue. Overall been a waste of time and money

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that was prob 4 years ago that I had that. now that you say it , I had to use a pipe wrench too and really put some muscle into it. My stock tie rod was bent so I had no choice. I called them and explained and they said send it back and they will re thread. I wasn't paying the shipping to do that, so now its a big pry bar that sits in the corner of the garage .

Went with serious 1 ton, been absolutely awesome

Ya on my other rig I run 7/8th heims and 1.75" .250 wall DOM and its pretty nice. Trying to keep the mj bolt on so i will probably go ZJ tie rod until I eventually go with a used currie setup.

why not just cut and section the tie rod?

Kind of a bummer since you were "supposed" to have a good part, but maybe cut your losses and just lengthen it a bit? I say this since you mentioned you would prefer not to sell it to anyone else.